Friedrich Nietzsche Atheism Quotations

Sins are indispensable to every society organized on an ecclesiastical basis; they are the only reliable weapons of power; the priest lives upon sins; it is necessary to him that there be sinning.

One does not kill by anger but by laughter.

One had better put on gloves before handling the New Testament. The presence of so much filth makes it highly advisable.

Faith means the will to avoid knowing what is true.

Christians call it faith ... I call it the herd.

One is not converted to christianity; one must be morbid enough for it.

The soul must have its chosen sewers to carry away its ordure. This function is performed by persons, relationships, professions, the fatherland, the world, or finally, for the really arrogant - I mean our modern pessimists - by the Good God himself.

But let me open up my heart to you completely, my friends: if there were gods, how could I bear not being a god! Hence, there areno gods. I drew this conclusion, to be sure--but now it draws me.

Precisely this is godliness--that there are gods, but no God.

Christianity was from the beginning, essentially and fundamentally, life's nausea and disgust with life, merely concealed behind, masked by, dressed up as, faith in "another" or "better" life.

I have not come to know atheism as a result of logical reasoning and still less as an event in my life: in me it is a matter of instinct.

Whatever a theologian regards as true must be false: there you have almost a criterion of truth.

Do not allow yourselves to be deceived: Great Minds are Skeptical.

There is nothing more necessary than truth, and in comparison with it everything else has only secondary value. This absolute will to truth: what is it? Is it the will to not allow ourselves to be deceived? Is it the will not to deceive? One does not want to be deceived, under the supposition that it is injurious, dangerous, or fatal to be deceived.

Priests ... these turkey-cocks of God.

The complete irresponsibility of man for his actions and his nature is the bitterest drop which he who understands must swallow.

I am Zarathustra the Godless: where shall I find my equal? All those who give themselves their own will and renounce all submission, they are my equals.

One should not go into churches if one wants to breathe pure air.

God is Dead; but given the way of men, there may still be caves for thousands of years in which his shadow will be shown. And we - we still have to vanquish his shadow, too.

For such is man: a Theological Dogma might be refuted to him a thousand times - provided however, that he had need of it, he would again and again accept it as true. Belief is always most desired, most pressingly needed where there is a lack of will. Fanaticism is the sole "volitional strength" to which the weak and irresolute can be excited, as a sort of hypnotising of the entire sensory-intellectual system.

It was Christianity which first painted the devil on the worlds walls; It was Christianity which first brought sin into the world. Belief in the cure which it offered has now been shaken to it's deepest roots; but belief in the sickness which it taught and propagated continues to exists.

The better the state is established, the fainter is humanity. To make the individual uncomfortable, that is my task.