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.

And the wisdom to distinguish one from the other.

And the wisdom to distinguish one from the other.

A lot of people say to me, "Why did you kill Christ?" "I dunno... it was one of those parties, read more

A lot of people say to me, "Why did you kill Christ?" "I dunno... it was one of those parties, got out of hand, you know." "We killed him because he didn't want to become a doctor, that's why we killed him.".

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.

Many have quarreled about religion that never practiced it.

Many have quarreled about religion that never practiced it.

The beauty of religious mania is that it has the power to explain everything. Once God (or Satan) is accepted read more

The beauty of religious mania is that it has the power to explain everything. Once God (or Satan) is accepted as the first cause of everything which happens in the mortal world, nothing is left to chance...logic can be happily tossed out the window.

Pray as if everything depended on God, and work as if everything depended upon man.

Pray as if everything depended on God, and work as if everything depended upon man.

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.

The foundation of all morality is to have done, once and for all, with lying; to give up pretending to read more

The foundation of all morality is to have done, once and for all, with lying; to give up pretending to believe that for which there is no evidence, and repeating unintelligible propositions about things beyond the possibilities of knowledge.