My Favorite Quotes

nonplussedbyreligion: Cohen

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:57:30 -0500

Cohen

"I try not to think with my gut. If I’m serious about understanding the world, thinking with anything..."

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:55:39 -0500

“I try not to think with my gut. If I’m serious about understanding the world, thinking with anything besides my brain, as tempting as that may be, is likely to get me into trouble. Really, it’s okay to reserve judgment until the evidence is in.”

- Carl Sagan

(via nonplussedbyreligion)

nonplussedbyreligion: Edmond de Goncourt

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 19:28:39 -0500

nonplussedbyreligion:

Edmond de Goncourt

"When they say “I’ll pray for you”, give that wonderful reply: “I’ll think for you”."

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 11:17:01 -0500

“When they say “I’ll pray for you”, give that wonderful reply: “I’ll think for you”.”

- Richard Dawkins (via travors)

religiousragings: Betrand Russell

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:02:53 -0500

religiousragings:

Betrand Russell

"I’ll tell you what you did with Atheists for about 1500 years. You outlawed them from the..."

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 01:56:48 -0500

“I’ll tell you what you did with Atheists for about 1500 years. You outlawed them from the universities, or any teaching careers, besmirched their reputations, banned or burned their books or their writings of any kind, drove them into exile, humiliated them, seized their properties, arrested them for blasphemy. You dehumanized them with beatings and exquisite torture, gouged out their eyes, slit their tongues, stretched, crushed, or broke their limbs, tore off their breasts if they were a woman, crushed their scrotums if they were men, imprisoned them, stabbed them, disemboweled them, hung them, burnt them alive. And you have the nerve enough to complain to me that I laugh at you.”

- Madalyn Murray O’Hair (via homoyoudidnot)

"The church says the earth is flat, but I know that it is round, for I have seen the shadow on the..."

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 11:40:52 -0500

“The church says the earth is flat, but I know that it is round, for I have seen the shadow on the moon, and I have more faith in a shadow than in the church.”

-

— As attributed to Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521), Portuguese navigator, by Robert G. Ingersoll. Source: The Great Quotations edited by George Seldes.

(via nonplussedbyreligion)

"They pick corn in Iowa. They pick Presidents in New Hampshire."

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 10:08:37 -0500

“They pick corn in Iowa. They pick Presidents in New Hampshire.”

- JON HUNTSMAN

Can we make him President now? And he shops at Trader Joe’s, too.

(via deadpresidents)

"The religious persecution of the ages has been done under what was claimed to be the command of God...."

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 08:49:47 -0500

“The religious persecution of the ages has been done under what was claimed to be the command of God. I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do to their fellows, because it always coincides with their own desires.”

-

— Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906), Remarks at 28th annual convention of the National-American Woman Suffrage Association, January, 1896

(via nonplussedbyreligion)

"Atheism: It’s not just a non-belief. It’s a personal relationship with reality."

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 21:04:26 -0400

“Atheism: It’s not just a non-belief. It’s a personal relationship with reality.”

- Alexander Anderson-Brebner (via bleedthrough)

"Now what is the difference between an invisible, incorporeal, floating dragon who spits heatless..."

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 22:56:31 -0400

“Now what is the difference between an invisible, incorporeal, floating dragon who spits heatless fire and no dragon at all? If there’s no way to disprove my contention, no conceivable experiment that would count against it, what does it mean to say that my dragon exists? You’re inability to invalidate my hypothesis is not at all the same thing as proving it true. Claims that cannot be tested, assertions immune to disproof are veridically worthless, whatever value they may have in inspiring us or in exciting our sense of wonder. What I’m asking you to do comes down to believing, in the absence of evidence, on my say-so.”

- Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World (via pain-killers)

"I have a friend who’s an artist and he’s some times taken a view which I don’t agree with very well...."

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 11:55:09 -0400

“I have a friend who’s an artist and he’s some times taken a view which I don’t agree with very well. He’ll hold up a flower and say, “Look how beautiful it is,” and I’ll agree. And he says, “You see, I as an artist can see how beautiful this is, but you as a scientist, oh, take this all apart and it becomes a dull thing.” And I think he’s kind of nutty. First of all, the beauty that he sees is available to other people and to me, too, I believe, although I might not be quite as refined aesthetically as he is. But I can appreciate the beauty of a flower. At the same time, I see much more about the flower that he sees. I could imagine the cells in there, the complicated actions inside which also have a beauty. I mean, it’s not just beauty at this dimension of one centimeter: there is also beauty at a smaller dimension, the inner structure…also the processes. The fact that the colors in the flower are evolved in order to attract insects to pollinate it is interesting – it means that insects can see the color. It adds a question – does this aesthetic sense also exist in the lower forms that are…why is it aesthetic, all kinds of interesting questions which a science knowledge only adds to the excitement and mystery and the awe of a flower. It only adds. I don’t understand how it subtracts.”

- Richard Feynman, Vivva La Vivvo (via cocknbull)

"I would request, that my body in death, be buried not cremated, so that the energy content,..."

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 17:56:49 -0400

“I would request, that my body in death, be buried not cremated, so that the energy content, contained within it gets returned to the earth so that flora and fauna can dine upon it, just as I have dined upon flora and fauna throughout my whole life.”

- Neil deGrasse Tyson on dying (via ageofreason)

Photo

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 23:01:45 -0400

ageofreason: Edgar Mitchell

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 17:47:25 -0400

ageofreason:

Edgar Mitchell

"If most of us are ashamed of shabby clothes and shabby furniture, let us be more ashamed of shabby..."

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 19:11:50 -0400

“If most of us are ashamed of shabby clothes and shabby furniture, let us be more ashamed of shabby ideas and shabby philosophies. It would be a sad situation if the wrapper were better than the wrapped meat inside it.”

- Albert Einstein (via zeitgeistmovement)

"First of all, let’s clarify what the NASA budget is. Do you realize that the $850 billion dollar..."

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 19:11:33 -0400

“

First of all, let’s clarify what the NASA budget is. Do you realize that the $850 billion dollar bailout, that sum of money is greater than the entire 50-year running budget of NASA?

And so when someone says, “We don’t have enough money for this space probe,” I’m asking, no, it’s not that you don’t have enough money, it’s that the distribution of money that you’re spending is warped in some way that you are removing the only thing that gives people something to dream about tomorrow.

You remember the 60s and 70s. You didn’t have to go more than a week before there’s an article in Life magazine, “The Home of Tomorrow,” “The City of Tomorrow,” “Transportation of Tomorrow”. All of that ended in the 1970s. After we stopped going to the Moon, it all ended. We stopped dreaming.

And so I worry that the decision that Congress makes doesn’t factor in the consequences of those decisions on tomorrow. Tomorrow’s gone. They’re playing for the quarterly report, they’re playing for the next election cycle, and that is mortgaging the actual future of this nation, and the rest of the world is going to pass us by.

”

- Neil deGrasse Tyson (via david)

This is brilliant and sad. It’s the end of dreams time.

(via discoverynews)

"When my husband died, because he was so famous and known for not being a believer, many people would..."

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 13:08:09 -0400

“When my husband died, because he was so famous and known for not being a believer, many people would come up to me-it still sometimes happens-and ask me if Carl changed at the end and converted to a belief in an afterlife. They also frequently ask me if I think I will see him again. Carl faced his death with unflagging courage and never sought refuge in illusions. The tragedy was that we knew we would never see each other again. I don’t ever expect to be reunited with Carl. But, the great thing is that when we were together, for nearly twenty years, we lived with a vivid appreciation of how brief and precious life is. We never trivialized the meaning of death by pretending it was anything other than a final parting. Every single moment that we were alive and we were together was miraculous-not miraculous in the sense of inexplicable or supernatural. We knew we were beneficiaries of chance… . That pure chance could be so generous and so kind… . That we could find each other, as Carl wrote so beautifully in Cosmos, you know, in the vastness of space and the immensity of time… . That we could be together for twenty years. That is something which sustains me and it’s much more meaningful… . The way he treated me and the way I treated him, the way we took care of each other and our family, while he lived. That is so much more important than the idea I will see him someday. I don’t think I’ll ever see Carl again. But I saw him. We saw each other. We found each other in the cosmos, and that was wonderful.”

- Ann Druyan, talking about Carl Sagan after his death (via drinkthe-koolaid)

friendlyatheist

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 11:45:13 -0400

friendlyatheist

"Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason? For if it prosper, none dare call it treason."

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 08:00:05 -0400

“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason? For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”

- Sir John Harington (via goodreasonnews)

My Favorite Quotes

nonplussedbyreligion: Cohen

"I try not to think with my gut. If I’m serious about understanding the world, thinking with anything..."

nonplussedbyreligion: Edmond de Goncourt

"When they say “I’ll pray for you”, give that wonderful reply: “I’ll think for you”."

religiousragings: Betrand Russell

"I’ll tell you what you did with Atheists for about 1500 years. You outlawed them from the..."

"The church says the earth is flat, but I know that it is round, for I have seen the shadow on the..."

"They pick corn in Iowa. They pick Presidents in New Hampshire."

"The religious persecution of the ages has been done under what was claimed to be the command of God...."

"Atheism: It’s not just a non-belief. It’s a personal relationship with reality."

"Now what is the difference between an invisible, incorporeal, floating dragon who spits heatless..."

"I have a friend who’s an artist and he’s some times taken a view which I don’t agree with very well...."

"I would request, that my body in death, be buried not cremated, so﻿ that the energy content,..."

Photo

ageofreason: Edgar Mitchell

"If most of us are ashamed of shabby clothes and shabby furniture, let us be more ashamed of shabby..."

"First of all, let’s clarify what the NASA budget is. Do you realize that the $850 billion dollar..."

"When my husband died, because he was so famous and known for not being a believer, many people would..."

friendlyatheist

"Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason? For if it prosper, none dare call it treason."

"I would request, that my body in death, be buried not cremated, so that the energy content,..."