Science has done more for the development of western civilization in one hundred years than Christianity did in eighteen hundred read more

Science has done more for the development of western civilization in one hundred years than Christianity did in eighteen hundred years.

Theology is never any help; it is searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn't read more

Theology is never any help; it is searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn't there. Theologians can persuade themselves of anything.

Hope, like faith, is nothing if it is not courageous; it is nothing if it is not ridiculous.

Hope, like faith, is nothing if it is not courageous; it is nothing if it is not ridiculous.

Idolatry is in a man's own thought, not in the opinion of another.

Idolatry is in a man's own thought, not in the opinion of another.

A man met a lad weeping. "What do you weep for?" he asked. "I am weeping for my sins," said read more

A man met a lad weeping. "What do you weep for?" he asked. "I am weeping for my sins," said the lad. "You must have little to do," said the man. The next day, they met again. Once more the lad was weeping. "Why do you weep now?" asked the man. "I am weeping because I have nothing to eat," said the lad. "I thought it would come to that," said the man.

The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.

The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.

The human understanding is no dry light, but receives infusion from the will and affections; which proceed sciences which may read more

The human understanding is no dry light, but receives infusion from the will and affections; which proceed sciences which may be called "sciences as one would." For what a man had rather were true he more readily believes. Therefore he rejects difficult things from impatience of research; sober things, because they narrow hope; the deeper things of nature, from superstition; the light of experience, from arrogance and pride; things not commonly believed, out of deference to the opinion of the vulgar. Numberless in short are the ways, and sometimes imperceptible, in which the affections color and infect the understanding.

Getting rid of a delusion makes us wiser than getting hold of a truth.

Getting rid of a delusion makes us wiser than getting hold of a truth.

With most people unbelief in one thing is founded upon blind belief in another.

With most people unbelief in one thing is founded upon blind belief in another.