Steve Allen Quotes

Stephen Valentine Patrick William Allen was an American television personality, radio personality, musician, composer, actor, comedian, writer, and advocate of scientific skepticism. In 1954, he achieved national fame as the co-creator and first host of The Tonight Show, which was the first late night television talk show.

Though he got his start in radio, Allen is best known for his extensive network television career. He gained national attention as a guest host on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. After he hosted The Tonight Show, he went on to host numerous game and variety shows, including his own The Steve Allen Show, I've Got a Secret, and The New Steve Allen Show. He was a regular panel member on CBS's What's My Line?, and from 1977 until 1981 wrote, produced, and hosted the award-winning public broadcasting show Meeting of Minds, a series of historical dramas presented in a talk format.

Allen was a pianist and a prolific composer. By his own estimate, he wrote more than 8,500 songs, some of which were recorded by numerous leading singers. Working as a lyricist, Allen won the 1964 Grammy Award for Best Original Jazz Composition. He also wrote more than 50 books, including novels, children's books, and books of opinions, including his final book, Vulgarians at the Gate: Trash TV and Raunch Radio .

In 1996 Allen was presented with the Martin Gardner Lifetime Achievement Award from the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry . He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and a Hollywood theater named in his honor.

Wikipedia

✵ 26. December 1921 – 30. October 2000

Steve Allen photo

Steve Allen: 16 quotes0 likes

Famous Steve Allen Quotes

“It is not hardness of heart or evil passions that drive certain individuals to atheism, but rather a scrupulous intellectual honesty.”

2000 Years of Disbelief: Famous People with the Courage to Doubt by James A. Haught

“One social evil for which the New Testament is clearly in part responsible is anti-Semitism.”

Steve Allen on the Bible, Religion, and Morality (1990)

“To those who wish to punish others— or at least to see them punished, if the avengers are too cowardly to take matters in to their own hands— the belief in a fiery, hideous hell appears to be a great source of comfort.”

Steve Allen on the Bible, Religion, and Morality (1990)

“Allen, Steve. Steve Allen on the Bible, Religion, and Morality (1990)..”

References
Variant: Allen, Steve. More Steve Allen on the Bible, Religion, & Morality (1993)..

“Without laughter life on our planet would be intolerable. So important is laughter to us that humanity highly rewards members of one of the most unusual professions on earth, those who make a living by inducing laughter in others. This is very strange if you stop to think of it: that otherwise sane and responsible citizens should devote their professional energies to causing others to make sharp, explosive barking-like exhalations.”

Funny People (1981)

“God is by definition the holder of all possible knowledge, it would be impossible for him to have faith in anything. Faith, then, is built upon ignorance and hope.”

More Steve Allen on the Bible, Religion, & Morality (1993)

Steve Allen Quotes about doubt

“Religious believers of the world, you are free to continue to debate the simple, narrow question that divides you from atheists, but you have no right, in so doing, to treat the Humanists of the world with contempt. You owe them a deep debt of gratitude, for not only have they shed much light on a naturally dark world but they have very probably helped civilize your own specific religion.”

Vulgarians at the Gate: Trash TV and Raunch Radio: Raising Standards of Popular Culture (2001), ISBN 1615927514, p. 344

“There are hundreds of millions who believe the Messiah has come. If he did, then it is unfortunately the case that his heroic sacrifice and death have had no effect whatsoever on the very problem his coming might have been expected to address, for history demonstrates, beyond question, that we Christians have been just as dangerous, singly and en masse, as non-Christians.”

Steve Allen on the Bible, Religion, and Morality (1990)

“There is not the slightest question but that the God of the Old Testament is a jealous, vengeful God, inflicting not only on the sinful pagans but even on his Chosen People fire, lightning, hideous plagues and diseases, brimstone, and other curses.”

Steve Allen on the Bible, Religion, and Morality (1990)

Steve Allen Quotes

“No actual tyrant known to history has ever been guilty of one-hundredth of the crimes, massacres, and other atrocities attributed to the Deity in the Bible.”

More Steve Allen on the Bible, Religion, & Morality (1993)

“Sports fans, I have the final score for you on the big game between Harvard and William & Mary. It is: Harvard 14, William 12, Mary 6.”

“The Bible has been interpreted to justify such evil practices as, for example, slavery, the slaughter of prisoners of war, the sadistic murders of women believed to be witches, capital punishment for hundreds of offenses, polygamy, and cruelty to animals. It has been used to encourage belief in the grossest superstition and to discourage the free teaching of scientific truths. We must never forget that both good and evil flow from the Bible. It is therefore not above criticism.”

Steve Allen on the Bible, Religion, and Morality (1990)

“Ideas have consequences, and totally erroneous ideas are likely to have destructive consequences.”

More Steve Allen on the Bible, Religion, & Morality (1993)

“This is The Tonight Show. I can't tell you too much about it, other than the fact that this program is going to go on forever.”

First broadcast of The Tonight Show (1953)

“Allen, Steve. Funny People (1981)..”

References

“Get this to Grand Central Station as quick as you can!”

Instructions to a cab-driver after racing out of his studio dressed as a policeman, and throwing a large salami into the backseat of his taxi. The driver sped off without a word.

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