I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute, where no Catholic prelate would tell the president (should he be a Catholic) how to act and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote.

Talk to me about the truth of religion and I’ll listen gladly. Talk to me about the duty of religion and I’ll listen submissively. But don’t come talking to me about the consolations of religion or I shall suspect that you don’t understand.

Religion is by no means a proper subject of conversation in mixed company.

God is a complex of ideas formed by the tribe, the nation, and humanity, which awake and organize social feelings and aim to link the individual to society and to bridle the zoological individualism.

Whatsoever is, is in God.

God is a concept by which we measure our pain.

So long as one believes in God, one has the right to do the Good in order to be moral.

Kill a man, and you are an assassin. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill everyone, and you are a god.

The most dangerous madmen are those created by religion, and people whose aim is to disrupt society always know how to make good use of them.

Educate people without religion and you make them but clever devils.

To doubt everything or to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with the need for thought.

Without doubt God is the universal moving force, but each being is moved according to the nature that God has given it. He directs angels, man, animals, brute matter, in sum all created things—but each according to its nature—and man having been created free, he is freely led. This rule is truly the eternal law and in it we must believe.

Among all nations, through the darkest polytheism glimmer some faint sparks of monotheism.