Vladimir: That passed the time.
Estragon: It would have passed in any case.
Vladimir: Yes, but not so rapidly. ibid.
I sometimes wonder if we wouldn’t be better off alone. ibid. Estragon to Vladimir
What is there to recognise? ibid.
The best thing would be to kill me. ibid.
I can’t go on like this. ibid.
This is becoming really insignificant. ibid. Vladimir
We always find something, eh Didi, to give us the impression we exist. ibid. Estragon
Let’s abuse each other. ibid.
Let us not waste our time in idle discourse. ibid. Vladimir
We have kept our appointment. ibid.
We are all born mad. Some remain so. ibid. Estragon
We’re bored to death. There’s no denying it. ibid. Vladimir
What’ll we do? ibid. Estragon
Have you not done tormenting me with your accursed time! ibid. Pozzo to Vladimir
I don’t know what to think any more. ibid. Vladimir
I can’t go on. ibid.
Why don’t we hang ourselves? ibid. Estragon
I can’t go on like this. ibid.
We’ll hang ourselves tomorrow. Unless Godot comes. ibid. Vladimir
Estragon: Well shall we go?
Vladimir: Yes, let’s go [They do not move]. ibid.
There is no God ... Earth groans beneath Religion’s iron-age, and priests dare babble of a God of peace. Percy Bysshe Shelley, Queen Mab VII
If He is infinitely good, what reason should we have to fear him? If He is infinitely wise, why should we have doubt concerning our future? Percy Shelley, pamphlet The Necessity of Atheism
He was an embittered atheist (the sort of atheist who does not so much disbelieve in God as personally dislike Him), and took a sort of pleasure in thinking that human affairs would never improve. George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London, 1933
If there is a God, atheism must seem to Him as less of an insult than religion. Edmond de Goncourt
Do the gods exist or do they not? Cicero
All the Western theologies are based on the concept of God as a senile delinquent. Tennessee Williams
I didn’t exist at Creation.
I didn’t exist at the Flood,
And I won’t be around for Salvation
To sort out the sheep from the cud –
Or whatever the phrase is. The fact is
In soteriological terms
I’m a crude existential malpractice
And you are a diet of worms. James Fenton, ‘God, A Poem’, 1983
Nature and Nature’s laws lay hid in night:
God said, ‘Let Newton be.’ And all was light. Alexander Pope
All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body Nature is, and God the soul. Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man, 1734
Who says that I am not under the special protection of God? Adolf Hitler
I believe today that my conduct is in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator. Adolf Hitler
I am constructing my religion from Parcival. Without any submissive posture only when one takes on the mantle of hero is it possible to serve God. Adolf Hitler
If ignorance of Nature gave birth to the gods, knowledge of Nature is destined to destroy them. Baron d’Holbach, Systeme de la Nature 1770
I am one God and if you don’t worship me you will burn for ever. Gore Vidal
The great unmentionable evil at the centre of our culture is mono-theism. From a barbaric Bronze Age text known as the Old Testament, three anti-human religions have evolved – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. These are sky-God religions. They are, literally, patriarchal – God is the Omnipotent Father – hence the loathing of women for 2,000 years in those countries afflicted by the sky-god and his earthly made delegates. Gore Vidal
If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to. Dorothy Parker
If it turns out that there is a God, I don’t think that he’s evil. But the worst that you can say about him is that basically he’s an underachiever. Woody Allen
If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name at a Swiss bank. Woody Allen, Selections from the Allen Notebooks, New Yorker 5th November 1973
If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans. Woody Allen
Not only is there no God, but try getting a plumber at weekends. Woody Allen
How can I believe in God when just last week I got my tongue caught the roller of an electric typewriter? Woody Allen
Keaton: You think you’re God.
Allen: I gotta mould myself on someone. Manhattan 1979 starring Woody Allen & Diane Keaton & Michael Murphy & Meryl Streep & Mariel Hemingway & Anne Byrne & Michael O’Donoghue & Wallace Shawn & Karen Ludwig et al, director Woody Allen
It is incomprehensible that God should exist, and it is incomprehensible that He should not exist; that the soul should be joined to the body, and that we should have no soul; that the world should be created, and that it should not be created, etc; that original sin should be, and that it should not be. Blaise Pascal, Pensees
If there is a God, He is infinitely incomprehensible, since, having, neither parts nor limits, He has no affinity to us. We are then incapable of knowing either what He is or if He is. [So] you must wager. Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager then without hesitation that he is. Blaise Pascal, variations
By simple common sense I don’t believe in God. Charlie Chaplin
But should we believe in such things if it’s at the expense of everything that corresponds with scientific method, with reason? Matthew Alper, The God Part of the Brain
Why are we so afraid to let go of the antiquated belief systems by which we were raised? What if our great, great, great, great and then some grandparents were wrong? What if those who viewed lighting as God’s wrath were mistaken? What if their primitive interpretations were wrong? Moreover, what harm could come in at least exploring the tools of science as a means to fortify ourselves, as a means to minimize life’s pain and maximize our happiness?
So, which will it be? Are we to accept the underlying principles conceived in scientific method – reason – or are we to obstinately hold on to those antiquated belief systems that spring from our pre-scientific, ignorant past?
… Besides, if there truly is no spiritual reality, just think of all the energy we’ve wasted in practicing our illusionary beliefs. Think of all the useless rituals and ceremonies we’ve performed, all of the sacrifices we’ve made, the shrines we’re built, the purses we’ve filled, the gods to whom we’ve worshipped and prayed and, meanwhile all of it in vain. ibid.
Her conception of God was certainly not orthodox. She felt towards Him as she might have felt towards a glorified sanitary engineer; and in some of her speculations she seems hardly to distinguish between the Deity and the Drains. Lytton Strachey
God made the wicked Grocer
For a mystery and a sign,
That men might shun the awful shops
And go to inns to dine. G K Chesterton, 1874-1936
Beware of the man whose god is in the skies. George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Maxims for Revolutionists
The best place to find God is in a garden. You can dig for him there. George Bernard Shaw
I’m an atheist and I thank God for it. George Bernard Shaw
We have not lost faith but we have transferred it from God to the medical profession. George Bernard Shaw
God! Isn’t God a shit. Randolph Churchill, on reading the Bible
Suppose we’ve chosen the wrong God. Every time we go to church we’re just making him madder. Bart Simpson