The good part of Christmas is not always Christian -- it is generally Pagan; that is to say, human, natural.

The only thing that makes life endurable in this world is human love, and yet, according to Christianity, that is the very thing that we are not to have in the other world. We are to be so taken up with Jesus and angels, that we shall care nothing about our brothers and sisters that have been damned. We shall be so carried away with the music of the harp that we shall not even hear the wail of father and mother. Such a religion is a disgrace to human nature.

The whip degrades; a severe father teaches his children to dissemble; their love is pretense, and their obedience a species of self-defense. Fear is the father of lies.

Prayer is of no avail. The lightning falls on the just and the unjust in accordance with natural laws.

We have at last ascertained that miracles can be perfectly understood; that there is nothing mysterious about them; that they are simply transparent falsehoods.

With soap, baptism is a good thing.

When a fact can be demonstrated, force is unnecessary; when it cannot be demonstrated, force is infamous.