I look up at the night sky, and I know that, yes, we are part of this Universe, we are in this Universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the Universe is in us. When I reflect on that fact, I look up—many people feel small, because they’re small and the Universe is big, but I feel big, because my atoms came from those stars.

- Neil deGrasse Tyson

Recognize that the very molecules that make up your body, the atoms that construct the molecules, are traceable to the crucibles that were once the centers of high mass stars that exploded their chemically rich guts into the galaxy, enriching pristine gas clouds with the chemistry of life. So that we are all connected to each other biologically, to the earth chemically and to the rest of the universe atomically. That’s kinda cool! That makes me smile and I actually feel quite large at the end of that. It’s not that we are better than the universe, we are part of the universe. We are in the universe and the universe is in us.

- Neil deGrasse Tyson

For me, I am driven by two main philosophies: know more today about the world than I knew yesterday and lessen the suffering of others. You'd be surprised how far that gets you.

- Neil deGrasse Tyson

To put it bluntly but fairly, anyone today who doubts that the variety of life on this planet was produced by a process of evolution is simply ignorant—inexcusably ignorant, in a world where three out of four people have learned to read and write.

- Daniel Dennett, Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life

The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.

- Thomas Paine

The more I study religions, the more I am convinced that man never worshiped anything but himself.

- Richard Burton

Only in America can you be pro-death penalty, pro-war, pro-unmanned drone bombs, pro-nuclear weapons, pro-guns, pro-torture, pro-land mines, and still call yourself 'pro-life.'

- John Fugelsang

[I]t is difficult to imagine a set of beliefs more suggestive of mental illness than those that lie at the heart of many of our religious traditions.

- Sam Harris, The End of Faith

It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open your brains fall out.

- Carl Sagan

For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

- Carl Sagan

Life is but a momentary glimpse of the wonder of this astonishing universe, and it is sad to see so many dreaming it away on spiritual fantasy.

- Carl Sagan

That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.

- Christopher Hitchens

The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks.

- Christopher Hitchens

I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day.

- Douglas Adams

Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.

- Marcus Aurelius

Faith does not give you the answers, it only stops you from asking the questions.

- Frater Ravus

Fundamentalists believe the problem is eating from the Tree of Knowledge. Atheists believe the problem is cutting it down.

- Arthur Shuey