“The foundation of irreligious criticism is: Man makes religion, religion does not make man.”

The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living.

In history as in nature, decay is the laboratory of life.

Christ represents originally: 1) men before God; 2) God for men; 3) men to man.

This young lady, who instantly overwhelmed me with her kindness, is the ugliest creature I have seen in my entire life, with repulsive Jewish facial features.

Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering.

Religion is the opium of the masses.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them.

Labor in the white skin can never free itself as long as labor in the black skin is branded.

The last capitalist we hang shall be the one who sold us the rope.

All science would be superfluous if the outward appearance and the essence of things directly coincided.

Take away a nation’s heritage and they are more easily persuaded.

Society does not consist of individuals, but expresses the sum of interrelations, the relations within which these individuals stand.

Religion is the impotence of the human mind to deal with occurrences it cannot understand.

In proportion therefore, as the repulsiveness of the work increases, the wage decreases.

The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.

Imagine a world where unbelievers were critical of what we believed but envious of how well we treated one another.

Before you criticize others, remember, they may not have had the same opportunities in life as you have had.

It’s a no win situation. It’s a mug’s game. The religions have contrived to make it impossible to disagree with them critically without being rude. They play the hurt feelings card at every opportunity.

To deliberately criticise another individual may cause an indelible stain on the critic.

Criticism and pessimism destroy families, undermine institutions of all kinds, defeat nearly everyone, and spread a shroud of gloom over entire nations.

Criticism of others is thus an oblique form of self-commendation. We think we make the picture hang straight on our wall by telling our neighbors that all his pictures are crooked.

Anyone who criticizes you cares about your friendship. Anyone who makes light of your faults cares nothing about you.

It’s not easy that everything you do, everybody has to come in and critique it and give their opinion. Sometimes it does help me and sometimes it hurts me as a person. That’s life. I have feelings.