Cormac McCarthy quote: “There is no God and we are his prophets.”

“There is no God and Dirac is his Prophet.”

Wolfgang Pauli (1900–1958) Austrian physicist, Nobel prize winner

Es gibt keinen Gott und Dirac ist sein Prophet.
A remark made during the Fifth Solvay International Conference (October 1927), after a discussion of the religious views of various physicists, at which all the participants laughed, including Dirac, as quoted in Teil und das Ganze (1969), by Werner Heisenberg, p. 119; it is an ironic play on the Muslim statement of faith, the Shahada, often translated: "There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is His Prophet."
Variant translations and paraphrases:
Well, our friend Dirac, too, has a religion, and its guiding principle is "God does not exist and Dirac is His prophet."
As quoted in the authorized translation, Physics and Beyond : Encounters and Conversations (1971) by Werner Heisenberg, p. 87
Yes, yes, our friend Dirac has a religion, and its creed runs: "There is no God, and Dirac is his prophet."
As quoted in Jesus, Son of Man (1977) by Rudolf Augstein, p. 325
Our friend Dirac has a religion; and the main tenet of that religion is: There is no God, and Dirac is his prophet.
As quoted in Haphazard Reality : Half a Century of Science (1983), by Hendrik Brugt Gerhard Casimir, p. 151
Yes, our friend Dirac has a religion, and the basic postulate of this religion is: "There is no God, and Dirac is his prophet."
As quoted in Dirac : A Scientific Biography (1990) by Helge Kragh, p. 256
Well, well, our friend Dirac has a religion, and its guiding principle is: "There is no God, and Dirac is His prophet.
As quoted in God's Laughter : Man and His Cosmos (1992) by Gerhard Staguhn, p. 159
If I understand Dirac correctly, his meaning is this: there is no God, and Dirac is his Prophet.

“la ilaha il-Allah, wa Muhammadu… (There is no god but God and Muhammed [is His prophet])”

Saddam Hussein (1937–2006) Iraqi politician and President

Last words. http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=294756&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/

“He had sworn on his father's honour, his mother's life, his brother's masculinity, his sister's purity and his prophet's beard that he would never set foot there again. God, knowing people, thinks little of honour or purity or even life, but vows made on his prophet he loves to confound.”

Ian McDonald book The Dervish House

Source: The Dervish House (2010), Ch. 5, §6 (p. 178)

“We are now being coerced to accept and believe that a new political-cum-religious doctrine has arisen, namely that there is but one political God, George W Bush, and Tony Blair is his prophet.”

Robert Mugabe (1924–2019) former President of Zimbabwe

Accusing President Bush and Tony Blair at the UN General Assembly in New York on the US-led Invasion of Iraq. 2004-09-23 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3682352.stm
2000s, 2000-2004

“But true kingship, which pertains to the divine essence, is still and always shall be in its own station. On the outward plane, the prophets are constant in their sovereignty. They continue until such time as God changes his sacred law. At that time, their dispensations are dissipated. Nevertheless, the sovereignty of the prophets and their religions is everlastingly present in every religion, indeed, in every person who claims to follow those prophets. In sum, such a one has attained leadership, and passes a few days of his life, according to his belief, being a sovereign, until such time as God raises him up to him.”

Subh-i-Azal (1831–1912) Persian religious leader

Treatise on Kingship

“When law was held to come direct from the gods, it required a bold man and a prophet to propose a change in it. Perhaps it is still true that a law-maker ought to be something of a prophet. But if so, we are committed in western lands to the belief that prophetic capacity is widespread: the making of law goes on everywhere merrily and apace.”

William Ernest Hocking (1873–1966) American philosopher

Source: Present Status of the Philosophy of Law and of Rights (1926), Ch. I : What is Behind Us?, p. 1.
Context: When law was held to come direct from the gods, it required a bold man and a prophet to propose a change in it. Perhaps it is still true that a law-maker ought to be something of a prophet. But if so, we are committed in western lands to the belief that prophetic capacity is widespread: the making of law goes on everywhere merrily and apace.
In the midst of this vast labor it becomes clear to us that the more we relieve the gods of their burdens, the more we need to know what the gods know, the general principles on which law should be made. And if this knowledge were universal, and were applied in good faith, the law-makers themselves would in turn be relieved! In either case, then, we are bound to keep trying for a systematic grasp of those principles of law which we now possess in vague and fragmentary fashion.

“You request me to tell you…if it is true that the creed of all who profess to love high and serious art is: "There is no God but Bach, and Mendelssohn is his prophet?"”

Hector Berlioz Mémoires

Vous me priez de vous dire…S'il est vrai que l'acte de foi de tout ce qui prétend aimer l'art élevé et sérieux soit celui-ci : "Il n'y a pas d'autre Dieu que Bach, et Mendelssohn est son prophète"?
"Premier Voyage en Allemagne", Quatrième lettre, p. 285
Mémoires (1870)

“There are those that even God exploits, and they are prophets and saints in the vacuousness of the world.”

Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet

Ibid., p. 45
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Há os que Deus mesmo explora, e são profetas e santos na vacuidade do mundo.

“This book is a long conference of God, the angels, and Mahomet, which that false prophet very grossly invented; sometimes he introduceth God, who speaketh to him, and teacheth him his law, then an angel, among the prophets, and frequently maketh God to speak in the plural. … Thou wilt wonder that such absurdities have infected the best part of the world, and wilt avouch, that the knowledge of what is contained in this book, will render that law contemptible …”

John Adams (1735–1826) 2nd President of the United States

John Adams: John Adams Library (Boston Public Library) BRL; Du Ryer, André, ca. 1580-ca. 1660, tr; Adams, John, 1735-1826, former owner, "[ 2013-05-01 http://ia700200.us.archive.org/4/items/korancommonlycal00john/korancommonlycal00john.pdf, The Koran : commonly called the Alcoran of Mahomet (1806)]," Springfield [Mass.] : Printed by Henry Brewer, for Isaiah Thomas, Jun.
1770s

“There is no prophet which preaches the superpersonal God more plainly than mathematics.”

Paul Carus (1852–1919) American philosopher

"Reflections on Magic Squares" in The Monist, Vol. 16 (1906), p. 147
Variant: There is no science which teaches the harmonies of nature more clearly than mathematics.

“There is no God and we are his prophets.”

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