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

We are told in the Pentateuch, that god, the father of us all, gave thousands of maidens, after having killed their fathers, their mothers, and their brothers, to satisfy the brutal lusts of savage men. If there be a god, I pray him to write in his book, opposite my name, that I denied this lie for him.

Let every man teach his son, teach his daughter, that labor is honorable.

If nobody has too much, everybody will have enough.

Epithets are not arguments. Abuse does not persuade.

Would God give a bird wings and make it a crime to fly? Would he give me brains and make it a crime to think? Any God that would damn one of his children for the expression of his honest thought wouldn't make a decent thief. When I read a book and don't believe it, I ought to say so. I will do so and take the consequences like a man.

Intelligence, guided by kindness, is the highest wisdom. . . .