Ricky Gervais

Ricky Gervais in 2010

Ricky Dene Gervais (born 25 June 1961) is an English comedian, actor, director, producer, musician, writer, and former radio presenter.

Quotes

• You have options. You can either continue to be miserable or you can just stop being angry at everyone and accept the way things are. Allow yourself to live.
  • Ghost Town, 2008

• The truth doesn’t hurt. Whatever it is, it doesn’t hurt. It’s better to know the truth.
  • "Inside the Actors Studio," 2009

• If there is a god, why did he make me an atheist? That was his first mistake. Well, the talking snake was his first mistake.
  • "Inside the Actors Studio," 2009

• Why don’t you believe in God? I get that question all the time. I always try to give a sensitive, reasoned answer. This is usually awkward, time consuming and pointless. People who believe in God don’t need proof of his existence, and they certainly don’t want evidence to the contrary. They are happy with their belief. They even say things like “it’s true to me” and “it’s faith.” I still give my logical answer because I feel that not being honest would be patronizing and impolite. It is ironic therefore that “I don’t believe in God because there is absolutely no scientific evidence for his existence and from what I’ve heard the very definition is a logical impossibility in this known universe” comes across as both patronizing and impolite.
  • "Ricky Gervais: Why I’m an Atheist," WSJ, 2010

• Science seeks the truth. And it does not discriminate. For better or worse it finds things out. Science is humble. It knows what it knows and it knows what it doesn’t know. It bases its conclusions and beliefs on hard evidence -­- evidence that is constantly updated and upgraded. It doesn’t get offended when new facts come along. It embraces the body of knowledge. It doesn’t hold on to medieval practices because they are tradition. If it did, you wouldn’t get a shot of penicillin, you’d pop a leech down your trousers and pray.
  • "Ricky Gervais: Why I’m an Atheist," WSJ, 2010

• I think a comedian's job isn't just to make people laugh. I think it's to make people think.
  • At Piers Morgan Tonight, 2011

• Animals are not here for us to do as we please with. We are not their superiors, we are their equals. We are their family. Be kind to them.
  • Twitter, 17 November 2013; quoted in "Ricky Gervais Is PETA’s Person of the Year," PETA (23 December 2013)

• It’s awful to think of people eating dogs, but some people eat pork. I don’t, but some people do. And a pig is just like a dog, there is no difference between them.
  • From his Humanity show; quoted in "Ricky Gervais chooses vegan," Vegetarians of Washington (13 September 2017)

• If we took something like any fiction, any holy book… and destroyed it, in a thousand year’s time that wouldn’t come back just as it was. Whereas if we took every science book, and every fact, and destroyed them all, in a thousand years time, they’d all be back.
  • Interview on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, first broadcast by CBS on 1 February 2017.

• If humanity was wiped out today, the Earth would return to a paradise in a few hundred years. If we lose bees, we’re a desert, forever. We’re not that important. We’re just one species of narcissistic ape. And some people on social media get annoyed when I say we’re apes. You know, religious types, Americans.
  • Ricky Gervais: Armageddon (transcript). December 2023.