Knowledge is the intellectual manipulation of carefully verified observations.

The individual does actually carry on a double existence: one designed to serve his own purposes and another as a link in a chain, in which he serves against, or at any rate without, any volition of his own.

Illusions commend themselves to us because they save us pain and allow us to enjoy pleasure instead.

The goal of all life is death

The meager satisfaction that man can extract from reality leaves him starving.

The intention that man should be happy is not in the plan of Creation.

If all the evidence put forward for the authenticity of religious teachings originates in the past, it is natural to look round and see whether the present, about which it is easier to form judgements, may not also be able to furnish evidence of the sort. If by this means we could succeed in clearing even a single portion of the religious system from doubt, the whole of it would gain enormously in credibility.