Steve Allen Quotes

When my mother passed away several years ago—well, wait a minute. Actually, she didn’t ‘pass away.’ She died. Something about that verb, ‘to pass away’ always sounds to me as if someone just drifted through the wallpaper. No, my mother did not pass away. She definitely died.

~ Steve Allen

In a rational society we would want our presidents to be teachers. In our actual society we insist they be cheerleaders.

~ Steve Allen

If the Old Testament were a reliable guide in the matter of capital punishment, half the people in the United States would have to be killed tomorrow.

~ Steve Allen

Humor is a social lubricant that helps us get over some of the bad spots.

~ Steve Allen

If you pray for rain long enough, it eventually does fall. If you pray for floodwaters to abate, they eventually do. The same happens in the absence of prayers.

~ Steve Allen

I do not understand those who take little or no interest in the subject of religion. If religion embodies a truth, it is certainly the most important truth of human existence. If it is largely error, then it is one of monumentally tragic proportions—and should be vigorously opposed.

~ Steve Allen

Totalitarianism is patriotism institutionalized.

~ Steve Allen

Ours is a government of checks and balances. The Mafia and crooked businessmen make out checks, and the politicians and other compromised officials improve their bank balances.

~ Steve Allen