All religions are equally sublime to the ignorant, useful to the politician, and ridiculous to the philosopher.

Gibbon, Decline and Fall, vol. I, ch. II: “The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people, as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful.” By 1904 a version was credited to Seneca: Elbert Hubbard wrote that Gibbon was ‘making a free translation from Seneca’ (no such passage is known in Seneca; Wikiquote lists that form as disputed). The ‘sublime … useful … ridiculous’ wording credited to Lucretius is in print by December 1932, in a reader’s letter to The American Mercury that quotes it as his words, which suggests it was already in circulation; no earlier printing has been found. Searched: the Latin text (Perseus) and Leonard’s translation for the key words; archive.org full-text search for ‘equally sublime to the ignorant’ (nothing earlier than 1932 found); Google Books and HathiTrust full-text search were not reachable for this run.

1. 1776Before it · credited to Edward GibbonEdward Gibbon, describing the religious policy of the Roman Empire under the Antonines, sets the people, the philosopher and the magistrate against one another: the triad the later wording reworks.The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people, as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful.Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. I (London, 1776), chapter II, part I. Checked in a full-text transcription. Source
2. 1904Before it · credited to Seneca (via Gibbon)Elbert Hubbard, in his Little Journey to the home of Seneca, gives a version of the triad and calls Gibbon’s sentence a free translation from Seneca.Religion was regarded by the common people as true, by the philosophers as false, and by the rulers as useful.Elbert Hubbard, ‘Seneca’, in Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Philosophers (East Aurora, NY: The Roycrofters); read in the Memorial Edition, vol. 8 (New York, 1916). Checked in a full-text transcription. Source
3. December 1932Earliest found · credited to LucretiusCharles Wickham Jones of Washington, in a reader’s letter headed ‘Religious Tolerance’ in The American Mercury, quotes the wording as ‘the words of Lucretius’ against Isaac Goldberg.All religions are equally sublime to the ignorant, useful to the politician, and ridiculous to the philosopher.Charles Wickham Jones, ‘Religious Tolerance’ (letter), The American Mercury, vol. 27, no. 108, December 1932, 498. Checked on a page scan. Source
4. February 1933Spread · credited to LucretiusIsaac Goldberg replies in the same magazine; he disputes the word ‘equally’ but takes the line as Lucretius’, ‘great, but not infallible’.all religions are equally sublime to the ignorantIsaac Goldberg, ‘Dr. Goldberg on Tolerance’ (letter), The American Mercury, vol. 28, no. 110, February 1933, 248. Checked in the text of a page scan, not the image. Source
5. 1945Spread · credited to LucretiusIra D. Cardiff’s anthology What Great Men Think of Religion prints it under Lucretius’ name (and the ‘true … false … useful’ form under Seneca’s).Ira D. Cardiff, What Great Men Think of Religion (1945; reprint 1972), 245. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand.

Not in On the Nature of Things, in Latin or in Leonard’s translation. It is a reworking of a sentence by the historian Edward Gibbon about religion in the Roman Empire under the Antonines, from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776): the people, the philosopher and the magistrate there become the ignorant, the philosopher and the politician, and Gibbon’s ‘true’, ‘false’ and ‘useful’ become ‘sublime’, ‘ridiculous’ and ‘useful’.

The ignorant revere every religion, politicians find religion useful, and philosophers find it absurd.

Quoted as an ancient atheist’s verdict on religion. Gibbon was describing, with irony, how the different classes of the Roman world regarded the many cults of the empire, as the reason for its religious toleration. Lucretius attacks the fear of the gods but believes the gods exist.

• A misquotationReligion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful. The same triad credited to Seneca the Younger; Wikiquote lists it under Seneca as disputed, with Gibbon as the likely source. Where it was seen

Faith, Society, Religion

• Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful. (misattributed) Seneca the Younger
• A bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back again when it begins to rain. (not found) Robert Frost
• Writing about music is like dancing about architecture. (misattributed) Frank Zappa
• Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness. (not found) Oscar Wilde
• There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics. (misattributed) Mark Twain

• en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lucretius#Misattributed
• en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Seneca_the_Younger
• gutenberg.org/ebooks/731
• archive.org/details/american-mercury

“All religions are equally sublime to the ignorant, useful to the politician, and ridiculous to the philosopher.” Attributed to Lucretius. No. No. It is not in Lucretius: it rewords Edward Gibbon’s remark, in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776), that Rome’s religions were thought equally true by the people, equally false by the philosopher and equally useful by the magistrate. It was credited to Lucretius by 1932. Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/all-religions-are-equally-sublime-to-the-ignorant/ (checked 23 October 2026).

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