Robert Williger > Robert's Quotes

“[...]the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes “Awww!”
― Jack Kerouac, On the Road

“We cannot expect people to have respect for law and order until we teach respect to those we have entrusted to enforce those laws.”
― Hunter S. Thompson

“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”
― Pablo Picasso

“Either God can do nothing to stop catastrophes like this, or he doesn't care to, or he doesn’t exist. God is either impotent, evil, or imaginary. Take your pick, and choose wisely.

The only sense to make of tragedies like this is that terrible things can happen to perfectly innocent people. This understanding inspires compassion.

Religious faith, on the other hand, erodes compassion. Thoughts like, 'this might be all part of God’s plan,' or 'there are no accidents in life,' or 'everyone on some level gets what he or she deserves' - these ideas are not only stupid, they are extraordinarily callous. They are nothing more than a childish refusal to connect with the suffering of other human beings. It is time to grow up and let our hearts break at moments like this.”
― Sam Harris

“Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.”
― Denis Diderot

“From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step.”
― Denis Diderot, Essai sur le mérite et la vertu

“All things must be examined, debated, investigated without exception and without regard for anyone's feelings.”
― Denis Diderot

“We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter.”
― Denis Diderot

“Scepticism is the first step towards truth.”
― Denis Diderot, Pensées philosophiques

“A nation which thinks that it is belief in God and not good law which makes people honest does not seem to me very advanced.”
― Denis Diderot

“Poetry must have something in it that is barbaric, vast and wild.”
― Denis Diderot

“Whether God exists or does not exist, He has come to rank among the most sublime and useless truths.”
― Denis Diderot

“There is no moral precept that does not have something inconvenient about it.”
― Denis Diderot

“If you want me to believe in God, you must make me touch him.”
― Denis Diderot

“People stop thinking when they cease to read.”
― Denis Diderot

“The first step towards philosophy is incredulity.”
― Diderot

“One of the great tragedies of mankind is that morality has been hijacked by religion. So now people assume that religion and morality have a necessary connection. But the basis of morality is really very simple and doesn't require religion at all.”
― Arthur C. Clarke

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry into the Limits of the Possible

“I'm sure the universe is full of intelligent life. It's just been too intelligent to come here.”
― Arthur C. Clarke

“Magic's just science that we don't understand yet.”
― Arthur C. Clarke

“It may be that our role on this planet
is not to worship God--but to create him.”
― Arthur C. Clarke

“Science is the only religion of mankind.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, Childhood’s End

“A faith that cannot survive collision with the truth is not worth many regrets.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, The Exploration of Space

“Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories.”
― Arthur C. Clarke

“Science can destroy religion by ignoring it as well as by disproving its tenets. No one ever demonstrated, so far as I am aware, the nonexistence of Zeus or Thor, but they have few followers now.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, Childhood’s End

“Never attribute to malevolence what is merely due to incompetence”
― Arthur C. Clarke, 3001: The Final Odyssey

“I don't believe in God but I'm very interested in her. ”
― Arthur C. Clarke

“The real bible is not the work of inspired men, nor prophets, nor apostles, nor evangelists, nor of Christs. Every man who finds a fact, adds, as it were, a word to this great book. It is not attested by prophecy, by miracles or signs. It makes no appeal to faith, to ignorance, to credulity or fear. It has no punishment for unbelief, and no reward for hypocrisy. It appeals to man in the name of demonstration. It has nothing to conceal. It has no fear of being read, of being contradicted, of being investigated and understood. It does not pretend to be holy, or sacred; it simply claims to be true. It challenges the scrutiny of all, and implores every reader to verify every line for himself. It is incapable of being blasphemed. This book appeals to all the surroundings of man. Each thing that exists testifies of its perfection. The earth, with its forests and plains, its rocks and seas; with its every wave and cloud; with its every leaf and bud and flower, confirms its every word, and the solemn stars, shining in the infinite abysses, are the eternal witnesses of its truth.”
― Robert G. Ingersoll

“Suppose, however, that God did give this law to the Jews, and did tell them that whenever a man preached a heresy, or proposed to worship any other God that they should kill him; and suppose that afterward this same God took upon himself flesh, and came to this very chosen people and taught a different religion, and that thereupon the Jews crucified him; I ask you, did he not reap exactly what he had sown? What right would this god have to complain of a crucifixion suffered in accordance with his own command?”
― Robert G. Ingersoll, Some Mistakes of Moses

“Not one of the learned gentlemen who pretend that the Mosaic laws are filled with justice and intelligence, would live, for a moment, in any country where such laws were in force.”
― Robert G. Ingersoll, Some Mistakes of Moses