Trust is not the same as faith. A friend is someone you trust. Putting faith in anyone is a mistake.

Those who want to be offended don't have the right to try and close down the newspaper that offends them.

If you gave [Jerry] Falwell an enema he could be buried in a matchbox.

Skepticism rather than credulity is the highest principle that the human intellect can use to ennoble our existence.

Religion makes intelligent people say and do wacky things, believe and affirm crazy things.

I mean, what would I be doing if I couldn't write? But that fortunately hasn't proved to be the case and I can read any day. I still read a lot, and I can write any day, but much more slowly and fewer words.

[Concerning monotheistic religions] The only thing these hysterical cults have in common is the belief that this world will be consumed, and deservedly so, when the moment is ripe. They also, all of them, profess a great disdain for earthly possessions. Yet they pass the intervening time in haggling over the most trivial and paltry property rights, over caves and rocks and disputable pieces of archeological rubbish.