I know not what you mean by God; the word God is to me a sound conveying no clear or distinct affirmation.

I do not deny "God", because that word conveys to me no idea, and I cannot deny that which presents to me no distinct affirmation, and of which the would-be affirmer has no conception.

Idle and meaningless ... a form less solemn to me than the affirmation I would have reverently made.

Will any one, save the most bigoted, contend, that it is not certain gain to humanity to spread unbelief in the terrible doctrine that eternal torment is the probable fate of the great majority of the human family?

The ameliorating march of the last few centuries has been initiated by the heretics of each age, though I concede that the men and women denounced and persecuted as infidels by the pious of one century are frequently claimed as saints by the pious of a later generation.

[That] my body be buried as cheaply as possible and no speeches be permitted at my funeral.

The abuse dies in a day; but the denial slays the life of the people and entombs the hope of the race.