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Meditation 313
Quotations XXVIII

"I hate quotations, tell me what you know." Ralph Waldo Emerson.

But as some people do like quotations and think they can be useful in succinctly communicating an opinion, we will publish a selection occasionally, mostly but not entirely relevant. This is the twenty-eighth in an ongoing series.

1. If triangles made a god, they would give him three sides. Baron de Montesquieu
   
   
2. I am also mindful that man should never try to put words into God's mouth. I mean, we should never ascribe natural disasters or anything else to God. George W. Bush
   
   
3. If you don't count some of Jehovah's injunctions, there are no humorists in the Bible. Mordecai Richler
   
   
4. The Christian religion teaches us to imitate a God that is cruel, insidious, jealous, and implacable in his wrath. Denis Diderot
   
   
5. I never believed in Santa Claus because I knew no white dude would come into my neighborhood after dark. Dick Gregory
   
   
6. The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence that it is not utterly absurd; indeed, in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible. Bertrand Russell
   
   
7. I would never want to be a member of a group whose symbol was a guy nailed to two pieces of wood. George Carlin
   
   
8. There are many scapegoats for our sins, but the most popular one is Providence. Mark Twain
   
   
9. Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd and bloody religion that has ever infected the world. Voltaire
   
   
10. If there be a soul, it is as mortal as the body. David Hume
    
    
11. Once you have denied the principles of science and cast doubt upon the most evident things, everyone knows you may prove whatever you will, and maintain any paradox. Rosalie Colie
    
    
12. Many men would have arrived at wisdom had they not believed themselves to have arrived there already. Seneca the Younger
    
    
13. Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, sometimes I think we're not. In either case, the idea is quite staggering. Arthur C. Clarke
    
    
14. I believe Dr. Kevorkian is onto something. I think he's great. Because suicide is our way of saying to God, "You can't fire me. I quit." Bill Mahar
    
    
15. Lighthouses are more helpful than churches. Benjamin Franklin
    
    
16. If God lived on Earth, people would break his windows. Jewish proverb
    
    
17. Vain are the thousand creeds that move men's hearts, unutterably vain, worthless as wither'd weeds. Emily Bronte
    
    
18. Neither in my private life nor in my writings, have I ever made a secret of being an out-and-out unbeliever. Sigmund Freud
    
    
19. I cannot believe in the immortality of the soul.... No, all this talk of an existence for us, as individuals, beyond the grave is wrong. It is born of our tenacity of life -- our desire to go on living -- our dread of coming to an end. Thomas Edison
    
    
20. No gods, no masters. Margaret Sanger