Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.

It is clear that thought is not free if the profession of certain opinions makes it impossible to earn a living.

Neither acquiescence in skepticism nor acquiescence in dogma is what education should produce.

Most political leaders acquire their position by causing large numbers of people to believe that these leaders are actuated by altruistic desires

My own view on religion is that of Lucretius. I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race. I cannot, however, deny that it has made some contributions to civilisation. It helped in early days to fix the calendar, and it caused Egyptian priests to chronicle eclipses with such care that in time they became able to predict them. These two services I am prepared to acknowledge, but I do not know of any others.

Reason is a harmonising, controlling force rather than a creative one.

One of the most painful circumstances of recent advances in science is that each one makes us know less than we thought we did