sustulisse

Updated: August 4, 2026

The system of Epicurus, although it contained a formal recognition of a First Cause, has always been held to be practically atheistic, simply because it removed God from the active superintendence of the affairs of the world, and excluded the doctrine of a special providence and of a moral government. It was held, in the words of Cicero, "Epicurum verbis reliquisse Deos, re sustulisse."

James Buchanan - Modern Atheism under its forms of Pantheism, Materialism, Secularism, Development, and Natural Laws