Is it not gain to have diminished the faith that it was the duty of the wretched and the miserable to be content with the lot in life which providence had awarded them?

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.

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

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.

A mere society form of Atheism.

There is a court to which I shall appeal: the court of public opinion.

Better a thousandfold abuse of free speech than denial of free speech.