The worst moment for the atheist is when he is really thankful and has nobody to thank.

The line frames gratitude as an inherently relational impulse: to feel “really thankful” is, in this view, to experience a desire to direct thanks toward a giver. It suggests that atheism can create an existential discomfort at precisely the moment of uplift—when one wants to acknowledge beneficence but rejects a divine recipient. Rhetorically, it is less an argument about evidence than about psychology and moral sentiment, implying that certain human emotions (gratitude, awe) naturally point beyond the self. The epigram also functions as a critique of self-sufficiency: if no one is thanked, gratitude risks collapsing into mere satisfaction or luck.