Poor humanity, to saddle the gods with such a responsibility and throw in a vindictive temper. What griefs they hatch for themselves, what festering sores for us, what tears for our prosperity! This is not piety, this oft-repeated show of bowing a veiled head before a graven image; this bustling to every altar; this kow-towing and prostration on the ground with palms outspread before the shrines of the gods; this deluging of vow on vow. True piety lies rather in the power to contemplate the universe with a quiet mind.

Pleasant it is, when over a great sea the winds trouble the waters, to gaze from shore upon another's great tribulation: not because any man's troubles are a delectable joy, but because to perceive from what ills you are free yourself is pleasant.

All life is a struggle in the dark.

For thee the wonder-working earth puts forth sweet flowers.

Fear is the mother of all gods ... Nature does all things spontaneously, by herself, without the meddling of the gods.

Human life lay foul before men's eyes, crushed to the dust beneath religion's weight.

Only religion can lead to such evil.