Cyrus the Great( 601-c. 538B.C) said:

[dragonfly]

I just found this really interesting.Does anybody have any other quotes from antiquity that illustrate atheist beliefs?

Cyrus the Great (601-c. 538 B.C.), founder of the Persian Empire said in his farewell address,recorded by Xenophon: "I can never be persuaded that the soul lives on longer than it dwells in this mortal body and that it dies too on its separation....Remember this as my last and dying words."

[AuntieSocial]

Ohhh, I love quotations! I have a rather sizable collection of atheistic and/or agnostic quotations.

I went to my favorite site (as far as quotations go), Positive Atheism's Big List of Quotes and looked for some quotes from "antiquity" ... here's what I found (some were familiar to me, others are new).

Aristophanes (ca. 448-380 BCE)

"Shrines! Shrines! Surely you don't believe in the gods. What's your argument? Where's your proof?"
~Quoted in Views on Religion by Rufus K. Noyes

Aristotle (ca. 384-322 BCE)

"Prayers and sacrifices are of no avail"
~Quoted in What Great Med Think of Religion by Ira D. Cardiff and 2000 Years of Disbelief by James A. Haught

"Men create gods after their own image, not only with regard to their form but with regard to their mode of life."
~Quoted in Views on Religion by Rufus K. Noyes and 2000 Years of Disbelief by James A. Haught

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
~in support of skepticism~

Carvaka (6th century B.C.E.)
Possibly the founder of the Carvaka school of thought within Hinduism, which was entirely naturalistic in its view of the universe and hedonistic in its ethical outlook; may not have been a real person

“Only the perceived exists; the unperceived does not exist, by reason of its never having been perceived;
While life remains let a man live happily, let him feed on ghee though he runs into debts;
When once the body has become ashes, how can it ever return again?”
~from the Sarva-siddhanta-samgraha, quoted in Against the Faith by Jim Herrick

Aulus Cornelius Celsus (C.E. First Century)

“Before accepting any belief one ought to follow reason as a guide, for credulity without enquiry is a sure way to deceive oneself.”
~Quoted in Atheistic Humanism by Anthony Flew

Cicero [Marcus Tullius] (ca. 106-43 B.C.E.)

”In this subject of the nature of the gods the first question is: do the gods exist or do they not? It is difficult, you will say, to deny that they exist. I would agree, if we were arguing the matter in a public assembly, but in a private discussion of this kind it is perfectly easy to do so.”
~advocating discretion when publicly questioning the existence of gods~
~Quoted in The Nature of the Gods by Horace McGregor and Why Atheism? by George H. Smith

Confucius [K'ung-fu-tzu or Kongfuzi] (B.C.E. 551-479)

”To give oneself ernestly to securing righteousness and justice among the people, and while respecting the gods and demons, to keep aloof from them, that may be called wisdom.”
~expressing agnosticism and urging the avoidance of religious matters~
~Quoted from Against the Faith by Jim Herrick

Demosthenes (384-322 BCE)

“There are all kinds of devices invented for the protection and preservation of countries: defensive barriers, forts, trenches and the like. All these are the work of human hands aided by money. But prudent minds have as a natural gift one safegaurd which is the common possession of all, especially to the dealings of democracies with dictatorships. What is this safeguard? Skepticism. This you must preserve. This you must retain. If you can keep this, you need fear no harm.”
~From Oration

Diogenes (d. ca. 320 B.C.E.)

”The sacrifice of Diogenes to all the gods.”
~upon crushing a louse on an altar~
~Quoted from Robert Green Ingersoll, Why I Am An Agnostic

Okay, that one is a tongue-in-cheek addition, but it does demonstrate that Diogenes had no great fear or reverence of the gods

Epicurus (ca. 341-270 B.C.E.)

”Why should I fear death? If I am, death is not. If death is, I am not. Why should I fear that which cannot exist when I do?”
~Quoted from Robert Green Ingersoll, Why I Am An Agnostic

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?”

Heracletus of Ephesus (ca. 500 B.C.E.?)

“The universal cosmic process was not created by any god or man.”
~On Nature

Hippocrates (ca. 460-377 B.C.E.)

”Men think epilepsy divine, merely because they do not understand it. But if they called everything divine which they do not understand, why, there would be no end of divine things.”
~Quoted from The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan

[AuntieSocial]

Hsun Tzu (298-238)

”When stars fall or a sacred tree groans the people of the whole state are afraid. We ask "Why is it?" I answer: there is no [special] reason ... For there is no age which has not experienced eclipses of the sun and moon, unseasonable rain or wind, or strange stars seen in groups. If the prince is illustrious and the government tranquil, although these events should all come together in one age it would do no harm ... but when human ominous signs come, then we should really be afraid. Using poor ploughs ... spoiling a crop by inadequate hoeing and weeding ... these are what I mean by ominous human signs.”
~Quoted from Against the Faith by Jim Herrick

Omar Khayyám (12th century CE)

”Oh threats of Hell and Hopes of Paradise!
One thing at least is certain -- This life flies;
One thing is certain and the rest is Lies;
The Flower that once has blown forever dies.”
~Rubáiyát

“I sent my Soul through the Invisible,
Some letter of that After-life to spell:
And by and by my Soul return'd to me,
And answered "I myself am Heav'n and Hell."
~Rubáiyát

“Fools, your reward is neither here nor there.”
~scoffing at those who seek Heaven
~Rubáiyát, quoted from Breaking the Last Taboo by James A. Haught

Titus Lucretius Carus (B.C.E. 94?-55?)

”Nature does all things spontaneously, by herself, without the meddling of the gods.”
~Quoted from 2000 Years of Disbelief by James A. Haught

“Too often in time past, religion has brought forth criminal and shameful actions.... How many evils has religion caused?”
~remarking on King Agamemnon's sacrifice of his daughter to the gods to ensure success of a military campaign~
~De Rerum Natura, quoted from 2000 Years of Disbelief by James A. Haught

“Certainly it was no design of the atoms to place themselves in a particular order, nor did they decide what motions each should have. But atoms were struck with blows in many ways and carried along by their own weight from infinite times up to the present. They have been accustomed to move and to meet in all manner of ways. For this reason, it came to pass that being spread abroad through a vast time and trying every sort of combination and motion, at length those come together that produce great things, like earth and sea and sky and the generation of living creatures.”
~De Rerum Natura

“Forbear to spew out reason from your mind, but rather ponder everything with keen judgment; and if it seems true, own yourself vanquished, but, if it is false, gird up your loins to fight.”
~De Rerum Natura

“The generations of living things pass in a short time, and like runners hand on the torch of life.”
~seeming to comment on evolution~
~De Rerum Natura, quoted from Encarta Book of Quotations

“Rest, brother, rest. Have you done ill or well
Rest, rest, There is no God, no gods who dwell
Crowned with avenging righteousness on high
Nor frowning ministers of their hate in hell.”
~translation into verse by Creech, quoted from 2000 Years of Disbelief by James A. Haught

“Human life lay foul before men's eyes, crushed to the dust beneath religion's weight.”
~De Rerum Natura, quoted from Famous Dead Non-theists

“Long time men lay oppress'd with slavish fear
Religion's tyranny did domineer ...
At length a mighty one of Greece began
To assert the natural liberty of man,
By senseless terrors and vain fancies let
To slavery. Straight the conquered phantoms fled.”
~an ode to Epicurus, the "mighty one of Greece"~
~Translation into verse by Creech, quoted from 2000 Years of Disbelief by James A. Haught

“All religions are equally sublime to the ignorant, useful to the politician, and ridiculous to the philosopher.”
~Quoted from What Great Men Think of Religion and 2000 Years of Disbelief by James A. Haught

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus [Marcus Annius Verus] (121-180)

“If souls continue to exist, how does the air contain them from eternity?”
~The Meditations, Book Four

“Though thou shouldst be going to live three thousand years, and as many times ten thousand years, still remember that no man loses any other life than this which he now lives, nor lives any other than this which he now loses.”
~The Meditations, Book Two

Moschus (fl. ca. B.C.E. 150)

“Ah! When the mallow in the croft dies down,
Or the pale parsley or the crisped anise,
Again they grow, another year they flourish;
But we, the great, the valiant, and the wise,
Once covered over in the hollow earth,
Sleep a long, dreamless, unawakening sleep.”
~giving an early glance at the idea of death's finality, even if neglecting to point out that death is just as final for floral annuals as it is for fauna~
~Translated by Walter Savage Landor (1842), quoted from Moralist: Readings on the Meaning of Life edited by Peter Heinegg

Paulus Silentiarius (fl. Sixth Century C.E.)

My name was -- (Well -- what signifies?) -- my nation --
(Well, what of that?) -- my birth and education --
(Were good or bad; of course -- no matter which) --
My life -- (Well, sink all that -- was poor or rich --
Who cares?) -- I died, aged -- (Oh, drop that stuff) --
And here I lie -- (Ay, ay -- that's sure enough.)”
~showing the one aspect of our humanity that has any permanent consequence~
~Translated by Leigh Hunt (1837), quoted from Moralist: Readings on the Meaning of Life edited by Peter Heinegg

Plato (ca. B.C.E. 428-347)

”For though a man should be a complete unbeliever in the being of gods; if he also has a native uprightness of temper, such persons will detest evil in men; their repugnance to wrong disinclines them to commit wrongful acts; they shun the unrighteous and are drawn to the upright.”
~acknowledging that atheists can lead an honest life~
~Quoted from Against the Faith by Jim Herrick

Polybius (B.C.E 200?-118)

”Since the masses of the people are inconstant, full of unruly desires, passionate and reckless of consequence, they must be filled with fears to keep them in order. The ancients did well, therefore, to invent gods, and the belief in punishment after death.”
~Histories (ca. B.C.E 125), quoted from The Cassell Dictionary of Cynical Quotations by Jonathon Green

Protagoras of Abdera (ca. B.C.E. 480-411)

”About the gods I have no means of knowing either that they exist or that they do not exist or what they are like to look at; many things prevent my knowing -- among others, the fact that they are never seen and the shortness of human life.”
~Quoted from Against the Faith by Jim Herrick

“Man is the measure of all things, of the reality of those which are, and of the unreality of those which are not.”
~Quoted from Against the Faith by Jim Herrick

Seneca (ca. 5 B.C.E. to C.E. 65)

“Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.”

Sextus Empericus (ca. 4th century B.C.E.)

”That [God] does not exist is the contention of those who are nicknamed "atheists," such as Euhemerus and Diagoras of Melos, and Prodicus of Ceos, and Theodorus, and multitudinous others. Of these Euhemerus said that those who were believed to be gods were actually certain men of power who for this reason had been deified by the others, and then were thought to be gods. Prodicus said that whatever benefits life was understood to be God -- things such as sun, moon, rivers, lakes, meadows, crops and everything of that kind.... And Critias ... seems to be from the ranks of the atheists when he says that the lawgivers of ancient times invented God as a kind of overseer of the right and wrong actions of men. Their purpose was to prevent anyone from wronging his neighbors secretly, as he would incur the risk of vengeance at the hands of the gods.... Theodorus, "the Atheist," is also in agreement with these men, and according to some, Protagoras of Abdera. The former, in his treatise On Gods, demolished with various arguments the theological beliefs of the Greeks, while Protagoras in one passage wrote expressly: "In regard to the gods I can say neither whether they exist nor of what sort they are, for many are the things that prevent me." The Athenians condemned him to death for this, but he escaped, and then perished, lost at sea.... And Epicurus, according to some, leaves God undisputed when addressing himself to the public, but not where the real nature of things is the issue.”
~describing several atheists who preceeded him (about whom we know little besides what Sextus and Cicero wrote about them)~
~Quoted from Why Atheism? by George H. Smith

Tiberius Catius Asconius Silius Italicus (C.E. 25-101)

”It is when we are in misery that we revere the gods; the prosperous seldom approach the altar.”
~Punica (ca. C.E. 75)

[AuntieSocial]

Strabo (ca. B.C.E. 58 to C.E. 24)

”The poets were not alone in sanctioning myths, for long before the poets the states and the lawmakers had sanctioned them as a useful expedient.... They needed to control the people by superstitious fears, and these cannot be aroused without myths and marvels.”
~Geographia

Marcus Terentius Varro (B.C.E. 116-29)

”It is for the good of states that men should be deluded by religion.”
~Antiquitates rerurn humanarum et divinarum (ca. B.C.E 40), quoted from The Cassell Dictionary of Cynical Quotations by Jonathon Green

Xenophanes (ca. B.C.E. 560-478)

”If oxen and horses and lions could draw and paint, they would delineate the gods in their own image.”
~Quoted from Against the Faith by Jim Herrick

“The clear and perfect truth no man has seen, nor will there be anyone who knows about the gods and what I say about all things...; for, however perfect what he says may be, yet he does not know it; all things are matters of opinion.”
~Quoted from The Columbia History of Western Philosophy edited by Richard H. Popkin

Pope Leo X (1475-1521)

“It has served us well, this myth of Christ”

Okay, this is definitely not from antiquity … but I think it represents the overall views of the hierarchy of the Christian Church.

[dragonfly]

Wow THAT was fantastic Auntie Social! That quote from Epicures chilled me to the bone!

[AuntieSocial]

I noticed that Cyrus the Great isn't quoted on that site I posted. Maybe you would like to submit the quote, dragonfly.

I'm glad you liked the quotes. Positive Atheism is a good site to lose yourself on for several hours (or days). If you have some time, you should go sift through their offerings.

[Hilly]

Epicurus quote: ”Why should I fear death? If I am, death is not. If death is, I am not. Why should I fear that which cannot exist when I do?”
I quite like that one, although Epicurus was certainly showing a brave face. To not fear death when actually faced with it will probably not be that simple.
That being said, I think its a great quote.

[dragonfly]

I love these quotes ! They are so powerful and thought provoking! I will certainly check out the site Auntiesocial ! Thanks. And Hilly that quote by Epicurus is awesome!

[AuntieSocial]

My favourite Epicures quote is the other one ... the one often called "The Riddle of Epicures"

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?”