http://www.wonderfulatheistsofcfl.org/Quotes.htm (sources)
they are not exclusively atheists btw... some are , some are others
like agnostic, deists.
"I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this
but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be
called religion than it is the unbounded admiration for the
structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it."
"I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his
creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own -- a God, in
short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I
believe that the individual survives the death of his body,
although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or
ridiculous egotism."
"I do not believe in the immortality of the individual, and I
consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern with no
superhuman authority behind it."
"If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for
a reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed."
-Albert Einstein, German-born American physicist
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Charles Darwin
From the age of forty he was, to use his own words, a complete
dis-believer in Christianity. He professed himself an Agnostic,
regarding the problem of the universe as beyond our solution, "For
myself," he wrote, "I do not believe in any revelation. As for a
future life, every man must judge for himself between conflicting
vague probabilities."
"The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us, and
I for one must be content to remain an agnostic."
"It appears to me (whether rightly or wrongly) that direct
arguments against christianity and theism produce hardly any effect
on the public; and freedom of thought is best promoted by the
gradual illumination of men's minds which follows from the advance
of science." [Quoted in How We Believe: The Search for God in an
Age of Science by Michael Shermer.
Charles Robert Darwin, English naturalist (1809-1882).
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Napoleon Bonaparte
"Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people
quiet."
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."
"All religions have been made by men."
-Napoleon Bonaparte, French emperor
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Vincent Van Gogh
"I can very well do without God both in my life and in my painting,
but I cannot, suffering as I am, do without something which is
greater than I am, which is my life, the power to create."
-Vincent Van Gogh, Dutch painter
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Thomas Edison
"Religion is all bunk."
"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, American inventor (1847-1931).
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