“Take man’s most fantastic invention- God. Man invents God in the image of his longings, in the image of what he wants to be, then proceeds to imitate that image, vie with it, and strive to overcome it.”

We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand.

Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for lost faith in ourselves.

I hang onto my prejudices, they are the testicles of my mind.

You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.

I can never forget that one of the most gifted, best educated nations in the world, of its own free will, surrendered its fate into the hands of a maniac.

It is doubtful whether the oppressed ever fight for freedom. They fight for pride and power-power to oppress others.

You can never get enough of what you don’t need to make you happy.

The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a god or not.

It is compassion rather than the principle of justice which can guard us against being unjust to our fellow men.

To know a person’s religion we need not listen to his profession of faith but must find his brand of intolerance.

Nowhere at present is there such a measureless loathing of their country by educated people as in America.

The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.

The greatest weariness comes from work not done.

Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly in us, but our emptiness. The hardest thing to hide is something that is not there.

The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.

Wise living consists perhaps less in acquiring good habits than in acquiring as few habits as possible.

The highest praise of God consists in the denial of him by the atheist who finds creation so perfect that it can dispense with a creator.

It is a fundamental human right, a privilege of nature, that every man should worship according to his own convictions.

The constant assertion of belief is an indication of fear.

There exists no politician in India daring enough to attempt to explain to the masses that cows can be eaten.

There is no heresy or no philosophy which is so abhorrent to the church as a human being.

Be an atheist if you want, but do not believe in anything unquestioningly.

Open your mouth and shut your eyes and see what Zeus will send you.

Surely you do not believe in the gods. What’s your argument? Where’s your proof?