The knowledge exists by which universal happiness can be secured; the chief obstacle to its utilization for that purpose is the teaching of religion. Religion prevents our children from having a rational education; religion prevents us from removing the fundamental causes of war; religion prevents us from teaching the ethic of scientific cooperation in place of the old fierce doctrines of sin and punishment. It is possible that mankind is on the threshold of a golden age; but, if so, it will be necessary first to slay the dragon that guards the door, and this dragon is religion.

A smile happens in a flash, but its memory can last a lifetime.

Change is scientific; progress is ethical; change is indubitable, whereas progress is a matter of controversy.

Religion may in most of its forms be defined as the belief that the gods are on the side of the government.

It is only in marriage with the world that our ideals can bear fruit; divorced from it, they remain barren.

A generation educated in fearless freedom will have wider and bolder hopes than are possible to us

I found one day in school a boy of medium size ill-treating a smaller boy. I expostulated, but he replied: "The bigs hit me, so I hit the babies; that's fair." In these words he epitomized the history of the human race.