There is a quote I have read many times that says something to the effect of “If there is no God, man would have had to create him”. What is the exact wording of that and who said it?
It was Voltaire. He said “If there was no God, man would find
a need to create one.” Although there appear to be variations on the exact wording, looking at Google.
From here:
“If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.”
Bartlett’s attributes the following to Voltaire:
Epitre à l’Auteur du Livre des Trois Imposteurs, November 10, 1770
echoing Ovid (43 BCE - 14 CE):
Ars Amatoria, I 637
and John Tillotson (1630 - 1694):
sermon
Hmm, I have a similar question that’s been gnawing on my mind. I don’t think it’s much of a hijack since the OP has been answered, and I don’t feel like creating a new thread for it, so I’ll just ask it here.
Anyway: Did Edgar Allan Poe ever say/write anything similar to “Life isn’t about the breaths you take but the moments that take your breath away”? It was my class motto when I graduated in May. It really doesn’t sound like anything Poe would write, and it bothered me to no end that my class would embarrass itself by selecting it as our class motto. Googling it brings up a graduation info page from my high school and a page I wrote to, uh, let out the last bit of my teen angst (and since Poe is in the public domain, I’m pretty sure it’d be on the internet somewhere; I’ve never encountered it or anything like it in the Poe I’ve read personally).
I’m almost certain it was just some anonymous, poster-in-the-doctor’s-office–type quote that someone on the Student Senate saw somewhere and liked, researched it lazily, found a web site somewhere that lazily attributed it to Poe, and left it at that. But then, I’m cynical; I wouldn’t mind being proven wrong in this instance. Unfortunately, Google it without the quotes (so it doesn’t limit itself to exact matches), and most of the results leave variants on the quote authorless (the fact that there are so many variants on something attributed to an English author is telling enough). Can anyone ease my mind here?
Poe died in 1849. The first quotation that the OED gives for the phrase “take your breath away” is in 1864. If Poe used that phrase in his writings, the people at the OED would really like to know about it, since it would be an earlier use of the term than they’ve ever found.
typhoon, I have seen that quote attributed to him before and thought it was a crock as well. I believe I’ve also seen that quote attributed to Mark Twain and Albert Einstein.
If it makes you feel any better, my little sister’s prom theme (about 12 years ago–gads, we’re getting old) was Stairway to Heaven. Yes, that Stairway to Heaven.