If we admit that some infinite being has controlled the destinies of persons and peoples, history becomes a most cruel and bloody farce.

Blasphemy is what an old dogma screams at a new truth.

I believe in the religion of reason -- the gospel of this world; in the development of the mind, in the accumulation of intellectual wealth, to the end that man may free himself from superstitious fear, to the end that he may take advantage of the forces of nature to feed and clothe the world.

Fear is religion, courage is science.

Every church that has a standard higher than human welfare is dangerous.

Either god should have written a book to fit my brain, or he should have made my brain to fit his book.

At the bottom of religious persecution is the doctrine of self-defence; that is to say, the defence of the soul. If the founder of Christianity had plainly said: 'It is not necessary to believe in order to be saved; it is only necessary to do, and he who really loves his fellow-men, who is kind, honest, just and charitable, is to be forever blest' - if he had only said that, there would probably have been but little persecution.