If we are immortal it is a fact in nature, and we are not indebted to priests for it, nor to bibles for it, and it cannot be destroyed by unbelief.

Give any orthodox church the power, and to-day they would punish heresy with whip, and chain, and fire. As long as a church deems a certain belief essential to salvation, just so long it will kill and burn if it has the power.

Think of the egotism of a man who believes that an infinite being wants his praise!

Mental slavery is mental death, and every man who has given up his intellectual freedom is the living coffin of his dead soul.

They knew no better, but I do not propose to follow the example of a barbarian because he was honestly a barbarian.

Give to every human being every right that you claim for yourself.

Is not the history of real civilization the slow and gradual emancipation of the intellect, of the judgment, from the mastery of passion? Is not that man civilized whose reason sits the crowned monarch of his brain - whose passions are his servants?