"Faiths of Meditation; Contemplation of the divine" as translated in The Simone Weil Reader (1957) edited by George A. Panichas, p. 417
Context: Religion in so far as it is a source of consolation is a hindrance to true faith; and in this sense atheism is a purification. I have to be an atheist with that part of myself which is not made for God. Among those in whom the supernatural part of themselves has not been awakened, the atheists are right and the believers wrong.
“Atheism, a religion dedicated to its own sense of smug superiority.”
Aphorism 50
Novum Organum (1620), Book I
Context: But by far the greatest hindrance and aberration of the human understanding proceeds from the dullness, incompetency, and deceptions of the senses; in that things which strike the sense outweigh things which do not immediately strike it, though they be more important. Hence it is that speculation commonly ceases where sight ceases; insomuch that of things invisible there is little or no observation.
"Our Contemporary Christ," in Borderland Theology and Other Essays (1968), p. 82
“Every man, either to his terror or consolation, has some sense of religion.”
James Harrington in The Commonwealth of Oceana (1656)
Misattributed
“A sense of humor, properly developed, is superior to any religion so far devised.”
Source: Jitterbug Perfume (1984)
The Range of Reason (1952). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, p. 106.
Letter to Richard Aldington (24 February, 1927). The Letters of T.S. Eliot: 1926-1927 p. 424
