
“I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense.”
1770s, Common Sense (1776)
The quote "By simple common sense I don't believe in God, in none." is famous quote attributed to Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977), British comic actor and filmmaker.
This phrase seems to have been first mentioned in Manual of a Perfect Atheist by Mexican writer Eduardo Garcia Del Rio, in 1989, without indicating any original source, which does make this quote unreliable. The quote has been widely circulated by atheists to try to prove that Chaplin was also one of them. However, taking into account what Chaplin himself wrote in his autobiography, when he was 75 years old, and what his family members wrote about him, calling Chaplin an atheist seems untenable. (http://www.adherents.com/people/pc/Charlie_Chaplin.html) According to his son, Charles Chaplin, Jr., in his book "My Father, Charlie Chaplin", pages 239-240, Chaplin was not an atheist; he quotes him saying: "I'm not an atheist"… "I can remember him saying on more than one occasion. 'I'm definitely an agnostic. Some scientists say that if the world were to stop revolving we'd all disintegrate. But the world keeps on going. Something must be holding us all in place — some Supreme Force. But what it is I couldn't tell you.". See also pages 210-211 of the book.
Disputed
“I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense.”
1770s, Common Sense (1776)
“I don't profess to be profound; but I do lay claim to common sense.”
“Common sense is no match for the voice of God.”
Source: Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith
“I don't believe in God because I don't believe in Mother Goose.”
Speech in Toronto (1930); as quoted in "Breaking the Last Taboo" (1996) by James A. Haught
As quoted in Jesus: Myth Or Reality? (2006) by Ian Curtis
Religion is the belief in future life and in God. I don't believe in either.
As quoted in The New York Times (19 April 1936)
Variant: I believe that religion is the belief in future life and in God. I don’t believe in either. I don’t believe in God as I don’t believe in Mother Goose.
State of Fear (2004)
Context: I think that you cannot eliminate religion from the psyche of mankind. If you suppress it in one form, it merely emerges in another form. Even if you don't believe in God, you still have to believe in something that gives meaning to your life, and shapes your sense of the world. Such a belief is religious.
Source: The Collected Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer
“People don't like reality, they don't like common sense, until age forces it on them.”
The Ministry of Fear (1943)
Introduction
Free Culture (2004)
Context: I believe it would be right for common sense to revolt against the extreme claims made today on behalf of "intellectual property." What the law demands today is increasingly as silly as a sheriff arresting an airplane for trespass. But the consequences of this silliness will be much more profound.
“We probably seem to be anti-religious…none of us believes in God.”
Hit Parader (January 1970)