All religious notions are uniformly founded on authority; all the religions of the world forbid examination, and are not disposed that men should reason upon them.

It is thus superstition infatuates man from his infancy, fills him with vanity, and enslaves him with fanaticism.

The unhappiness of people is due to their ignorance of nature.

All children are born Atheists; they have no idea of God.

If the ignorance of nature gave birth to gods, the knowledge of nature is calculated to destroy them.

Don't say anything about this to anybody. Any one would say that I am trying to play the good-natured philosopher. I am neither benefactor nor philosopher, but just a human being, and my charities are the pleasantest expense I have on these journeys.

In Nature nothing; is mean or contemptible, and it is only pride, originating in a false idea of our superiority, which causes our contempt for some of her productions. In the eyes of Nature, however, the oyster that vegetates at the bottom of the sea is as dear and perfect as the proud biped who devours it.