There's a Bible on that shelf there. But I keep it next to Voltaire - poison and antidote.

I am as firmly convinced that religions do harm as I am that they are untrue.

It is impossible to read in America, except on a train, because of the telephone. Everyone has a telephone, and it rings all day and most of the night.

It is the things for which there is no evidence that are believed with passion.

The reformative effect of punishment is a belief that dies hard, chiefly I think, because it is so satisfying to our sadistic impulses.

There is no greater reason for children to honour parents than for parents to honour children except, that while the children are young, the parents are stronger than children.

The opinions that are held with passion are always those for which no good ground exists; indeed the passion is the measure of the holders lack of rational conviction. Opinions in politics and religion are almost always held passionately.