The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity.

I feel that I am a scholar who only with the left hand writes novels.

With all of its defects, the global market makes war less likely, even between the USA and China.

Show not what has been done, but what can be. How beautiful the world would be if there were a procedure for moving through labyrinths.

Books are not made to be believed, but to be subjected to inquiry.

Religion has nothing to do with God. It's a fundamental attitude of human beings, who ask about the origins of life and what happens after death. For many, the answer is a personal god. In my opinion, it's religion that produces God, not the other way round.

But why do some people support [the heretics]?" "Because it serves their purposes, which concern the faith rarely, and more often the conquest of power." "Is that why the church of Rome accuses all its adversaries of heresy?" "That is why, and that is also why it recognizes as orthodoxy any heresy it can bring back under its own control or must accept because the heresy has become too strong.