What came from the earth returns back to the earth, and the spirit that was sent from heaven, again carried back, is received into the temple of heaven.

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.

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

One thing is made of another, and nature allows no new creation except at the price of death.

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

We, peopling the void air, make gods to whom we impute the ills we ought to bear.

True piety lies rather in the power to contemplate the universe with a quiet mind.