To believe in God is impossible not to believe in Him is absurd.
To pray to God is to flatter oneself that with words one can alter nature.
Satire lies about literary men while they live and eulogy lies about them when they die.
Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.
It is the first law of friendship that it has to be cultivated. The second is to be indulgent when the first law is neglected.
The institution of religion exists only to keep mankind in order, and to make men merit the goodness of God by their virtue. Everything in a religion which does not tend towards this goal must be considered foreign or dangerous.