WIST Quotations

Carlyle, Thomas -- Lecture (1840-05-05), “The Hero as Divinity,” Home House, Portman Square, London

Dave — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 22:27:50 +0000

Some speculators have a short way of accounting for the Pagan religion: mere quackery, priestcraft, and dupery, say they; no sane man ever did believe it, — merely contrived to persuade other men, not worthy of the name of sane, to believe it! It will be often our duty to protest against this sort of hypothesis about men’s doings and history; and I here, on the very threshold, protest against it in reference to Paganism, and to all other isms by which man has ever for a length of time striven to walk in this world. They have all had a truth in them, or men would not have taken them up. Quackery and dupery do abound; in religions, above all in the more advanced decaying stages of religions, they have fearfully abounded: but quackery was never the originating influence in such things; it was not the health and life of such things, but their disease, the sure precursor of their being about to die!

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Lecture (1840-05-05), “The Hero as Divinity,” Home House, Portman Square, London
(Source)

The lecture notes were collected by Carlyle into On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History, Lecture 1, (1841).

Gervais, Ricky -- Twitter (11 Sep 2012)

Dave — Fri, 19 Aug 2016 01:22:42 +0000

Your God is the best God.
In fact, he’s the only God.
All other Gods are ridiculous, made up rubbish.
Not yours though. Yours is real.

Ricky Gervais (b. 1961) English comedian, actor, director, writer
Twitter (11 Sep 2012)
(Source)

Murad, Abdal Hakim -- “Contentions 2,” #37

Dave — Fri, 15 May 2015 12:07:49 +0000

Idolatry is worse than atheism.

Abdal Hakim Murad (b. 1960) British Muslim shaykh, researcher, writer, academic [b. Timothy John Winter]
“Contentions 2,” #37
(Source)

Roberts, Stephen F. -- Usenet, alt.atheism, sig line (early 1995)

Dave — Mon, 10 Mar 2014 12:48:17 +0000

I contend we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.

Stephen F. Roberts (b. c. 1969) American software developer
Usenet, alt.atheism, sig line (early 1995)
(Source)

See Roberts' "Brief History of the Quote" for more on its origins.

As he is not a prominent public figure, the quote is frequently attributed to others, usually of the same name. Possibly most famously, Sam Harris misattributed it to Australian historian Stephen Henry Roberts in his article "10 Myths -- and 10 Truths -- about Atheism," Los Angeles Times (2006-12-24) (since corrected by Harris).

The quotation is often given with an extra word: "I contend that we are both atheists ...." Roberts himself uses the shorter version.