Reported as something said by Newton in Charles Dickens's All the Year Round https://books.google.es/books?id=bd0NAAAAQAAJ&q=%22the+thumb+would+convince+me+of+the+existence+of+a+God%22+dickens&dq=%22the+thumb+would+convince+me+of+the+existence+of+a+God%22+dickens&hl=es&sa=X&ei=fgHtVJ3BB4WXgwTAzoOwBA&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAA (1864), Vol. 10, p. 346; later found in " The Book of the Hand http://dds.crl.edu/loadStream.asp?iid=28101" (1867) by A R. Craig, S. Low and Marston, p. 51:
"In want of other proofs, the thumb would convince me of the existence of a God; as without the thumb the hand would be a defective and incomplete instrument, so without the moral will, logic, decision, faculties of which the thumb in different degrees offers the different signs, the most fertile and the most brilliant mind would only be a gift without worth."
A slight variant of this is cited as something Newton once "exclaimed" in Human Nature : An Interdisciplinary Biosocial Perspective http://books.google.es/books?id=c6O0AAAAIAAJ&q=In+the+absence+of+any+other+proof,+the+thumb+alone+would+convince+me+of+God's+existence.&dq=In+the+absence+of+any+other+proof,+the+thumb+alone+would+convince+me+of+God's+existence.&hl=es&sa=X&ei=KAkMUuLjL-am2gWtnoHgDg&ved=0CFUQ6AEwBQ, Vol. 1, Issues 7-12 (1978), p. 47: "In the absence of any other proof, the thumb alone would convince me of God's existence."
Original: (de) Mein Gott, fiel es mir mit Ungestüm ein, so bist du also. Es giebt Beweise für deine Existenz. Ich habe sie alle vergessen und habe keinen je verlangt, denn welche unge heuere Verpflichtung läge in deiner Gewißheit. Und doch, nun wird mirs gezeigt.
Source: The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge (1910), p. 135
“The vast ineptitude of his pretense would be a convincing proof that this was no fraud.”
"The Improbable Impostor Tom Castro", in A Universal History of Iniquity (1935); tr. Andrew Hurley, Collected Fictions (1998)
“My uniform experience has convinced me that there is no other God than Truth.”
Farewell, p. 453
1920s, An Autobiography (1927)
Les Loix du Mouvement et du Repos, déduites d'un Principe Métaphysique (1746)
“I am as convinced of continued existence, on the other side of death, as I am of existence here.”
Raymond, p. 375 https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=loc.ark:/13960/t80k3mq4s;view=1up;seq=417
Raymond, or Life and Death (1916)
Context: I am as convinced of continued existence, on the other side of death, as I am of existence here. It may said, you cannot be sure as you are of sensory experience. I say I can. A physicist is never limited to direct sensory impressions, he has to deal with a multitude of conceptions and things for which he has no physical organ....
Twitter, November 25, 2013 ( archive http://archive.is/khKVm)
Other
As quoted in a eulogy for Darrow by Emanuel Haldeman-Julius (1938)
As quoted in "Vonnegut's Blues For America" Sunday Herald (7 January 2006)
Various interviews
The trial of Charles B. Reynolds for blasphemy (1887)
Context: Gentlemen, you can never make me believe — no statute can ever convince me, that there is any infinite Being in this universe who hates an honest man. It is impossible to satisfy me that there is any God, or can be any God, who holds in abhorrence a soul that has the courage to express his thought. Neither can the whole world convince me that any man should be punished, either in this world or in the next, for being candid with his fellow-men. If you send men to the penitentiary for speaking their thoughts, for endeavoring to enlighten their fellows, then the penitentiary will become a place of honor, and the victim will step from it — not stained, not disgraced, but clad in robes of glory.
Let us take one more step.
What is holy, what is sacred? I reply that human happiness is holy, human rights are holy. The body and soul of man — these are sacred. The liberty of man is of far more importance than any book; the rights of man, more sacred than any religion — than any Scriptures, whether inspired or not.
What we want is the truth, and does any one suppose that all of the truth is confined in one book — that the mysteries of the whole world are explained by one volume?
All that is — all that conveys information to man — all that has been produced by the past — all that now exists — should be considered by an intelligent man. All the known truths of this world — all the philosophy, all the poems, all the pictures, all the statues, all the entrancing music — the prattle of babes, the lullaby of mothers, the words of honest men, the trumpet calls to duty — all these make up the bible of the world — everything that is noble and true and free, you will find in this great book.
If we wish to be true to ourselves, — if we wish to benefit our fellow-men — if we wish to live honorable lives — we will give to every other human being every right that we claim for ourselves.
“Let him who would move and convince others, be first moved and convinced himself.”
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 477.
