I'm adding what Ayaan Hirsi Ali wrote to my list of favorite quotes, and I'm adding "Atheist Republic" to my list of favorite websites.

I found this at Atheist Republic:

The only position that leaves me with no cognitive dissonance is atheism. It is not a creed. Death is certain, replacing both the siren-song of Paradise and the dread of Hell. Life on this earth, with all its mystery and beauty and pain, is then to be lived far more intensely: we stumble and get up, we are sad, confident, insecure, feel loneliness and joy and love. There is nothing more; but I want nothing more.
-- Ayaan Hirsi Ali