“Let us try to teach generosity and altruism, because we are all born selfish.”

When I am dying, I should like my life taken out under general anaesthetic, exactly as if it were a diseased appendix.

Science replaces private prejudice with public, verifiable evidence.

Such delusions of grandeur to think that a God with a hundred billion galaxies on his mind would give a tuppenny damn who you sleep with, or indeed whether you believe in him.

Indeed, organizing atheists has been compared to herding cats, because they tend to think independently and will not conform to authority.

The theory of evolution by cumulative natural selection is the only theory we know of that is in principle capable of explaining the existence of organized complexity.

If there is a human moral to be drawn, it is that we must teach our children altruism, for we cannot expect it to be part of their biological nature.

We, alone on earth, can rebel against the tyranny of the selfish replicators.

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.

We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born.

Creationists eagerly seek a gap in present-day knowledge or understanding. If an apparent gap is found, it is assumed that God, by default, must fill it.

Creationists eagerly seek a gap in present-day knowledge or understanding. If an apparent gap is found, it is assumed that God, by default, must fill it.

Religion is not the root of all evil, for no one thing is the root of all anything.

Religion is not the root of all evil, for no one thing is the root of all anything.

I don’t give a damn for anybody’s opinion, I only care about the facts. So I’m not an enthusiast for diversity of opinion where factual matters are concerned.

I don’t give a damn for anybody’s opinion, I only care about the facts. So I’m not an enthusiast for diversity of opinion where factual matters are concerned.

Any altruistic system is inherently unstable, because it is open to abuse by selfish individuals, ready to exploit it.

But what matter whether I was born or not, have lived or not, am dead or merely dying. I shall go on doing as I have always done, not knowing what it is I do, nor who I am, nor where I am, nor if I am.

Grief is a species of idleness.

A person can’t help their birth.

Do not desire crosses, unless you have borne those already laid upon you well — it is an abuse to long after martyrdom while unable to bear an insult patiently.

Basically, I started singing when I started talking. Music has just been my saving grace my whole life.

A genius is not born, but is educated and trained.

Happy the heart where love has come to birth.

Truth is the only healthy place from which to speak. Assumption is the birthplace of godless chatter.