Belief is otiose reality is sufficiently awesome as it stands.

Religious belief is without reason and without dignity, and its record is near-universally dreadful.

Love is an abstract noun, something nebulous. And yet love turns out to be the only part of us that is solid, as the world turns upside down and the screen goes black.

It is straightforward—and never mind, for now, about plagues and famines: if God existed, and if he cared for humankind, he would never have given us religion.

It’s possible to be flippant here, when Jihadists fly aircraft into buildings they shout God is Great, what do atheists shout when they do it?

Obstacles accelerate transformation

In the past, only some of the males, but all of the females, were able to procreate. Equality is more natural for females.

Letter-writing is the only device for combining solitude with good company.

Programming in machine code is like eating with a toothpick

There are days when I think: what if I just checked out? What if I grew a beard and went off to live somewhere remote? I have often wondered about the freedom that would bring.

The usual trouble with volunteers is not killing them with overwork, but simply boring them to death.

The art of angling, the cruelest, the coldest and the stupidest of pretended sports.

The reader has to be creative when he's reading. He has to try to make the thing alive. A good reader has to do a certain amount of work when he is reading.

I still can't believe I'm an Olympic athlete.

An elective despotism was not the government we fought for.