Pray to God, but hammer away.

Pray to God, but hammer away.

We are born believing. A man bears beliefs, as a tree bears apples.

We are born believing. A man bears beliefs, as a tree bears apples.

From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were; I have not seen
As others saw; I could not read more

From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were; I have not seen
As others saw; I could not bring
My passions from a common spring.
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;
And all I loved, I loved alone.

A Sunday school is a prison in which children do penance for the evil conscience of their parents.

A Sunday school is a prison in which children do penance for the evil conscience of their parents.

I hope I never get so old I get religious.

I hope I never get so old I get religious.

To swallow and follow, whether old doctrine or new propaganda, is a weakness still dominating the human mind.

To swallow and follow, whether old doctrine or new propaganda, is a weakness still dominating the human mind.

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.

If people would forget about utopia! When rationalism destroyed heaven and decided to set it up here on earth, that read more

If people would forget about utopia! When rationalism destroyed heaven and decided to set it up here on earth, that most terrible of all goals entered human ambition. It was clear there'd be no end to what people would be made to suffer for it.

In isolated societies creeds can be preserved. It is where people of different traditions, outlook and creeds mingle freely and read more

In isolated societies creeds can be preserved. It is where people of different traditions, outlook and creeds mingle freely and exchange ideas that religious beliefs begin to be eroded. No one changes his beliefs without some instigation, some novel experience, some modification of the customary course of things, and in a closed society people believe what all their fellows obviously believe. Only when they are brought into contact with persons whom they respect holding different views do they begin to look at their inherited beliefs critically.