If everything has a cause, then God must have a cause. If there can be anything without a cause, it may just be the world as God.

Science can teach us, and I think our hearts can teach us, no longer to look around for imaginary supporters, no longer to invent allies in the sky, but rather to look to our own efforts here below to make the world a fit place to live.

The main things which seem to me important on their own account, and not merely as means to other things, are knowledge, art, instinctive happiness, and relations of friendship or affection.

Religions which have any very strong hold over men's actions have generally some instinctive basis.

Beggars do not envy millionaires, though of course they will envy other beggars who are more successful.

Belief systems provide a programme which relieves the necessity of thought.

America... where law and custom alike are based upon the dreams of spinsters...