“The most detestable wickedness, the most horrid cruelties, and the greatest miseries, that have afflicted the human race have had their origin in this thing called revelation, or revealed religion....”

“Let them call me a rebel and welcome. I feel no concern from it. But should I suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul.”

“It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.”

“Nothing, they say is more certain than death, and nothing more uncertain than the time of dying”

“That there are men in all countries who get their living by war, and by keeping up the quarrels of Nations is as shocking as it is true...”

“The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark.”

“Politics unfortunately abounds in shams that must be treated reverentially for every politician who would succeed. If you are the sort of man whose stomach revolts against treating shams reverentia...”

“. . . the mysteries, on belief in which theology would hang the destinies of mankind, are cunningly devised fables whose origin and growth are traceable to the age of Ignorance, the mother of credu...”

“In our day everyone wants to appear intelligent, one would prefer to be accused of crime than of naivet if the accompanying risks could be avoided. But since intelligence cannot be drawn from the v...”