As a first approximation, I define "belief" not as the object of believing (a dogma, a program, etc.) but as read more

As a first approximation, I define "belief" not as the object of believing (a dogma, a program, etc.) but as the subject's investment in a proposition, the act of saying it and considering it as true.

Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.

Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.

The discussions of every age are filled with the issues on which its leading schools of thought differ. But the read more

The discussions of every age are filled with the issues on which its leading schools of thought differ. But the general intellectual atmosphere of the time is always determined by the views on which the opposing schools agree. They become the unspoken presuppositions of all thought, and common and unquestioningly accepted foundations on which all discussion proceeds.

I feel no need for any other faith than my faith in the kindness of human beings. I am so read more

I feel no need for any other faith than my faith in the kindness of human beings. I am so absorbed in the wonder of earth and the life upon it that I cannot think of heaven and angels.

Various kinds of ideas can be classified by their relationship to the authentication process. There are ideas systematically prepared for read more

Various kinds of ideas can be classified by their relationship to the authentication process. There are ideas systematically prepared for authentication ("theories"), ideas not derived from any systematic process ("visions"), ideas which could not survive any reasonable authentication process ("illusions"), ideas which exempt themselves from any authentication process ("myths"), ideas which have already passed authentication processes ("facts"), as well as ideas known to have failed- or certain to fail- such processes ("falsehoods" - both mistakes and lies).

I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.

I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.

No human beings more dangerous than those who have suffered for a belief: the great persecutors are recruited from the read more

No human beings more dangerous than those who have suffered for a belief: the great persecutors are recruited from the martyrs not quite beheaded. Far from diminishing the appetite for power, suffering exasperates it.

The most costly of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation read more

The most costly of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind.

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.