Name a moral statement or action, uttered or performed by a religious person that could not have been uttered or performed by an unbeliever.

If religious instruction were not allowed until the child had attained the age of reason, we would be living in a quite different world.

Islamophobia: a word created by fascists, and used by cowards, to manipulate morons.

Religion is poison because it asks us to give up our most precious faculty, which is that of reason, and to believe things without evidence. It then asks us to respect this, which it calls faith.

Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence.

Human beings are pattern-seeking animals who will prefer even a bad theory or a conspiracy theory to no theory at all.

I learned that very often the most intolerant and narrow-minded people are the ones who congratulate themselves on their tolerance and open-mindedness.

High moral character is not a precondition for great moral accomplishments.

What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.

Why do humans exist? A major part of the answer: because Pikaia Gracilens survived the Burgess decimation.

The only real radicalism in our time will come as it always has—from people who insist on thinking for themselves and who reject party-mindedness.

What they might lack in intelligence, they make up for with sheer quantities of high explosive.

If a child lives with approval he learns to live with himself.

To influence a person is to give him one's own soul.

But the real, tremendous truth is this: suffering serves no purpose whatever.

I think comics have far more potential than a lot of people realize.

Every man, however little, makes a figure in his own eyes.

To philosophize with open eyes is to philosophize in the dark. Only the blind can look straight at the sun.

If not exactly raging against the dying of the light, I was at least a little cross with it.

Writers are liars my dear, surely you know that by now?

Sometimes we just need a space that gives us permission to be the best, most full version of our artistic selves, and we flourish.