Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.
This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it.
The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.
The Church says the Earth is flat. But I know that it is round. For I have seen the shadow on the Moon. And I have more faith in a shadow than in the Church.
Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.
With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
The way to see by Faith is to shut the Eye of Reason.
Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet.
Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and tortuous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we call it the word of a demon than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize humankind.
For good people to do evil things, it takes religion.
Man would indeeded be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.
Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?
It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.
Creationists make it sound as though a 'theory' is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night.
Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived.
Religions are all alike- founded upon fables and mythologies.
A man's ethical behaviour should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.
I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.
...It would be more consistent that we call [the Bible] the work of a demon than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind.
or simply:
