This is my doctrine: Give every other human being every right you claim for yourself.
To hate man and worship God seems to be the sum of all the creeds.
Any doctrine that will not bear investigation is not a fit tenant for the mind of an honest man. Any doctrine that will not bear investigation is not a fit tenant for the mind of an honest man. Any man who is afraid to have his doctrine investigated is not only a coward but a hypocrite.
Every man should stand under the blue and stars, under the infinite flag of nature, the peer of every other man.
Courage without conscience is a wild beast.
Religion can never reform mankind because religion is slavery.
I want no heaven for which I must give my reason; no happiness in exchange for my liberty, and no immortality that demands the surrender of my individuality. Better rot in the windowless tomb, to which there is no door but the red mouth of the pallid worm, than to wear the jeweled collar of a god.
The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart.
Happiness is not a reward – it is a consequence. Suffering is not a punishment – it is a result.
Shakespeare has done far more for the world than the Bible.
Blasphemy is what an old dogma screams at a new truth.
The few have said, Think! The many have said, Believe! The first doubt was the womb and cradle of progress, and from the first doubt, man has continued to advance.
The church teaches us that we can make God happy by being miserable ourselves.
The intellectual advancement of man depends on how often he can exchange an old superstition for a new truth.
A fact never went into partnership with a miracle. Truth scorns the assistance of wonders. A fact will fit every other fact in the universe, and that is how you can tell whether it is or is not a fact. A lie will not fit anything except another lie.
Hope is the only bee that makes honey without flowers.
The myth of hell represents all the meanness, all the revenge, all the selfishness, all the cruelty, all the hatred, all the infamy of which the heart of man is capable.
Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so.
What light is to the eyes – what air is to the lungs – what love is to the heart, liberty is to the soul of man.
I will not attack your doctrines nor your creeds if they accord liberty to me. If they hold thought to be dangerous – if they aver that doubt is a crime, then I attack them one and all, because they enslave the minds of men.