Are you searching for the most thought-provoking Richard Dawkins quotes?
As an evolutionary biologist, scientist, and outspoken atheist, Dawkins has shared powerful insights on science, religion, and human nature.
Here, you’ll find his most profound and impactful words.
Richard Dawkins Quotes on Science and Evolution
Best Pick: Science replaces private prejudice with publicly verifiable evidence.
- Evolution is just a theory—just like gravity.
- The gene is the basic unit of selfishness.
- Science is the poetry of reality.
- We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.
- It is absolutely safe to say that if you meet someone who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, irrational, or ridiculous.
- The essence of life is statistical improbability on a colossal scale.
- Nature is not cruel, only pitilessly indifferent.
- We are survival machines—robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes.
- Biology is the study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose.
- If something were designed, it would have to be designed by something even more complex.
- The fact that life evolved out of nearly nothing, some 10 billion years after the universe evolved literally out of nothing, is a fact so staggering that I would be mad to attempt words to do it justice.
- There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one.
Richard Dawkins Quotes on Religion
Best Pick: Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence.
- Religion teaches the dangerous nonsense that death is not the end.
- By all means let’s be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.
- One of the truly bad effects of religion is that it teaches us that it is a virtue to be satisfied with not understanding.
- Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence.
- God exists, if only in the form of a meme with high survival value.
- Do not indoctrinate your children. Teach them how to think for themselves, how to evaluate evidence, and how to disagree with you.
- To be fair, much of the Bible is not systematically evil but just plain weird.
- The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.
- The total amount of suffering per year in the natural world is beyond all decent contemplation.
- The Bible should be taught, but emphatically not as reality. It is fiction, myth, poetry, anything but reality.
- Religion is about turning untested belief into unshakable truth through the power of institutions and the passage of time.
- The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction.
Richard Dawkins Quotes on Atheism and Rational Thinking
Best Pick: We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones.
- Atheists have as much conscience, possibly more, than religious believers.
- You don’t need religion to be moral.
- Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
- The human brain runs first-class simulation software.
- When two opposite points of view are expressed with equal intensity, the truth does not necessarily lie exactly halfway between them.
- There is no need to be apologetic about opposing irrational beliefs.
- Atheism is not a belief—it is the absence of belief.
- We should not regard the young as empty vessels waiting to be filled with wisdom.
- Fear of things unseen is a terrible way to live.
- Do not passively accept traditions—challenge them.
- You cannot be a true scientist if you cling to faith.
- A world with no belief in gods is a world full of wonder and curiosity.
Richard Dawkins Quotes on Science vs. Superstition
Best Pick: Scientific beliefs are supported by evidence, and they get results. Myths and faiths are not and do not.
- The less you know, the more certain you are.
- Science builds knowledge—faith destroys it.
- Astrology is bunk, and so is homeopathy.
- There is no polite way to suggest that someone has devoted their life to a delusion.
- Magic spells do not work. Prayers do not work. Charms do not work. No alternative medicine works.
- If you believe something on faith, you will never know if you are wrong.
- What has ‘faith’ ever discovered that science has not?
- Believing in the supernatural is the same as refusing to understand the world.
- Trust science, not folklore.
- The mind is like a parachute; it only works when it is open.
- Superstition is the enemy of progress.
- Science makes predictions. Religion makes excuses.
- You cannot reason someone out of a belief they did not reason themselves into.
Richard Dawkins Quotes on Humanity and Ethics
Best Pick: Let us try to teach generosity and altruism, because we are born selfish.
- We need to treat each other with kindness—not because of divine command but because it is the right thing to do.
- Morality does not come from religion; it comes from our evolution as social beings.
- A society that values open inquiry is stronger than one that fears questioning.
- Do good because you want to, not because you fear punishment.
- The meaning of life is whatever you make of it.
- Compassion is not owned by any religion—it is a human trait.
- The best way to live is to seek truth, not comfort.
- A good person does not need the threat of hell to behave well.
- Treat people with respect, even when you strongly disagree.
- There is more to admire in reality than in fantasy.
- Education is the antidote to ignorance.
- The world needs more thinkers and fewer followers.
Richard Dawkins Quotes on Curiosity and Knowledge
Best Pick: The universe is not queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.
- Wonder at the real world is more beautiful than any religious myth.
- The solution to mystery is not magic, but knowledge.
- Question everything—especially things that people tell you not to question.
- Ignorance is not bliss—it is dangerous.
- Do not settle for easy answers when the truth is so much more fascinating.
- What is true is more interesting than what is made up.
- If you want to understand the world, study science, not scripture.
- Science thrives on doubt, while faith withers under it.
- Learning how the universe works is the greatest adventure of all.
- Seek truth, and never fear where it leads you.
- A single discovery in science is worth a thousand religious texts.
- The real world is more magical than any fantasy.
- Look up at the stars and be grateful you exist.
Richard Dawkins Quotes on Life and the Universe
Best Pick: After sleeping through a hundred million centuries, we have finally opened our eyes on a sumptuous planet, sparkling with color, bountiful with life.
- You are alive against all odds—cherish it.
- The stars don’t care about us, but we should care about them.
- Life’s greatest mystery is why the universe is understandable at all.
- The cosmos is far more grand than any religious story.
- We are all stardust, born from the ashes of long-dead stars.
- Your existence is a rare and precious thing—don’t waste it.
- There is no greater privilege than to be alive and aware.
- Be curious about everything, for curiosity is the path to understanding.
- We are temporary, but our discoveries can last forever.
- Enjoy the wonders of the universe while you can.
- Live fully—this is the only life you get.
Conclusion
Richard Dawkins’ quotes challenge us to think critically, embrace science, and seek truth over comfort.
His words continue to inspire and provoke meaningful discussions on life, knowledge, and existence.
