The state dictates and coerces; religion teaches and persuades. The state enacts laws; religion gives commandments. The state is armed with physical force and makes use of it if need be; the force of religion is love and benevolence.

God is really only another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant, and the cat. He has no real style. He just goes on trying other things.

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

We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.

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

God is a concept by which we measure our pain.

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.

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

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.

The nature of God is a circle, of which the center is everywhere and the circumference is nowhere.

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

The important thing, I think, is not to be bitter. You know, if it turns out that there is a God, I don’t think that he’s evil. I think that the worst thing you could say about him is that basically he’s an underachiever. After all, you know, there are worse things in life than death.

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