250 quotes
The God of the Christian is an enthroned guess—a perhaps—an inference.
The Truth (1896)
What is blasphemy in one country would be a religious exhortation in another. It is owing to where you are and who is in authority.
The trial of Charles B. Reynolds for blasphemy (1887)
Is it the result of impotent rage? Is it because there is being written upon every orthodox brain a certificate of intellectual inferiority?
My Reviewers Reviewed (1877)
Every man who has thought, knows not only how little he knows, but how little every other human being knows, and how ignorant, after all, the world must be.
The trial of Charles B. Reynolds for blasphemy (1887)
The statistics show that a large majority die under five years of age. What would we think of a schoolmaster who killed the most of his pupils the first day?
To the Indianapolis Clergy." The Iconoclast (Indianapolis, IN) (1883)
The theologian says that what we call evil is for our benefit—that we are placed in this world of sin and sorrow to develop character. If this is true I ask why the infant dies?
Why I Am an Agnostic (1896)
The “Black Death” was sent by the eternal Father, whose mercy spared some and whose justice murdered the rest.
A Thanksgiving Sermon (1897)
Who is a worshiper? What is prayer? What is real religion? Let me answer these questions.
Good, honest, faithful work, is worship.
The trial of Charles B. Reynolds for blasphemy (1887)
Majorities are not necessarily right. If anything is known—if anything can be known—we are sure that very large bodies of men have frequently been wrong.
Rome, or Reason? A Reply to Cardinal Manning. Part I. The North American Review (1888)
If this “sacred” book teaches man to enslave his brother, it is not inspired. A god who would establish slavery is as cruel and heartless as any devil could be.
My Reviewers Reviewed (1877)
The king said that mankind must not work for themselves. The priest said that mankind must not think for themselves. One forged chains for the hands, the other for the soul.
The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child (1877)
If you take the cruel passages, the verses that inculcate eternal hatred, verses that writhe and hiss like serpents, you can make a creed that would shock the heart of a hyena.
What Would You Substitute for the Bible as a Moral Guide? (1900)
The credulity of the church is decreasing, and the most marvelous miracles are not either 'explained,' or allowed to take refuge behind the mistakes of the translators, or hide in the drapery of allegory.
Wait until the world is free before you write a creed.
In this creed there will be but one word — Liberty.
The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child (1877)
I simply claim that what ideas I have, I have a right to express; and that any man who denies that right to me is an intellectual thief and robber. That is all.
The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child (1877)
If there is one subject in this world worthy of being discussed, worthy of being understood, it is the question of intellectual liberty. Without that, we are simply painted clay; without that, we are poor, miserable serfs and slaves.
The trial of Charles B. Reynolds for blasphemy (1887)
Orthodox religion is a kind of boa-constrictor; anything it can not dodge it will swallow.
So they are easily imposed upon by forms, strange garments, and solemn ceremonies.
The Great Infidels (1881)
They were unbalanced, emotional, hysterical, bigoted, hateful, loving, and insane.
Why I Am an Agnostic (1896)
No devil, no hell. No hell, no atonement. No atonement, no preaching, no gospel.
Orthodoxy (1884)