The function of the law is not to provide justice or to preserve freedom. The function of the law is to keep those who hold power, in power.

We are afraid. But fear confirms life and identifies the source of every successful argument - ourselves.

I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief.

We could advance the human race enormously if we but learned to communicate honestly with our neighbors.

I cherish the fantasy, even the hope, of adventures in other realms to come. But how can we choke out that most precious of all gifts, life, with the rope of religion around our necks? It chokes out freedom with dogma. It pinions us to the stake of superstition.

Words that do not create images should be discarded.

Once slavery in America was not seen as radical. It became, instead, a revolutionary idea that slaves should be freed. When we have lived under a pernicious power long enough, no matter how oppressive, we grow so accustomed to the yoke that its removal seems frightening, even wrong.