"If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him."
François-Marie Arouet (aka Voltaire), the great French critic, poet, historian, and writer of timeless witticisms. He first used this in a poem, entitled "Epistle to the Author of the Book the Three Imposters", in response to an earlier atheistic manuscript written anonymously which denied the validity of the Abrahamic (Jewish, Christian, and Muslim) religions. Voltaire was more of a Deist than a traditional Christian, but felt strongly that a belief in God and fear of God’s divine retribution against evildoers was necessary to deter crime, maintain social order and restrain excesses by those in power. He later wrote: “If God did not exist it would be necessary to invent him. But all nature cries aloud that he does exist; that there is a supreme intelligence, an immense power, an admirable order, and everything teaches us our own dependence on it.”
“Reason tells us that if the skeptic did not exist it would be necessary to invent him.”
-- Frater H.J. Hershenow, F.R.C.
“If I didn’t exist, someone would have to have invented me.”
From his autobiographical book Chronicles: Volume One (2004)
“If heroes do not exist, it is necessary to invent them. Good for public morale.”
Cardinal Borusa (actor Angus MacKay)
