Richard Dawkins
Evolutionary biologist and author; writes The Poetry of Reality newsletter on Substack.
Everything they publish, on ppll ↗
Richard Dawkins did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
The line under a date shows how recently it was said: empty within a month, full after three years.
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Their wordsMy point is that this historian forfeits all credibility by his habit of wantonly muddling legends with facts.
↗But is it true? (Let’s hear it for reality)richarddawkins.substack.com 1st of 3 in this piece
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Our reading
Their wordsI don’t think believing is something you can choose to do.
↗But is it true? (Let’s hear it for reality)richarddawkins.substack.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsI’m not denigrating myths, legends, parables, metaphors, symbols, allegories, fiction, human comfort. All have value. All I’m asking is that we should make a clear distinction between those good things and factual truth.
↗But is it true? (Let’s hear it for reality)richarddawkins.substack.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 6 months earlier
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Their wordsBut the remedy for loneliness is human fellowship, the warmth of real, live, flesh-and-blood companions and loved-ones; not prating in a vacuum to an imaginary friend for whose existence there is no vestige of serious evidence.
↗No Satisfying Alternative to Religion? Try Reality.richarddawkins.substack.com 1st of 4 in this piece
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Their wordsThere is joy in understanding, true joy, rising to little short of ecstasy. I suppose you could call it the poetry of reality.
↗No Satisfying Alternative to Religion? Try Reality.richarddawkins.substack.com 2nd of 4 in this piece
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Their wordsYou are prodigiously lucky to be alive. So please stifle your entitled moaning. Revel in your own existence.
↗No Satisfying Alternative to Religion? Try Reality.richarddawkins.substack.com 3rd of 4 in this piece
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Their wordsWho needs New Age spirituality (“sound baths”, “energy healing”, “astrology”),who needs to thumb-suck under a mental comfort blanket, who needs gods, when reality is there for the taking?
↗No Satisfying Alternative to Religion? Try Reality.richarddawkins.substack.com 4th of 4 in this piece
The line under a date fills as the words age, a quarter at a time: past a month, six months, a year, and three years. Empty means said within the last month; full, more than three years ago. It says when, not whether it still holds — a change of mind is marked on the claim itself.
Dashed means we only know the words existed by that date; they may be older.