Only he is a truly ethical, a truly human being, who has the courage to see through his own religious feelings and needs.

It is not as in the Bible, that God created man in his own image. But, on the contrary, man created God in his own image.

I would rather be a devil in alliance with truth, than an angel in alliance with falsehood.

Wherever morality is based on theology, wherever the right is made dependent on divine authority, the most immoral, unjust, infamous things can be justified and established.

The present age ... prefers the sign to the thing signified, the copy to the original, fancy to reality, the appearance to the essence ... for in these days illusion only is sacred, truth profane.

As we expand our knowledge of good books, we shrink the circle of men whose company we appreciate.

Man created God in his own image.

The power of thought is the light of knowledge, the power of will is the energy of character, the power of heart is love. Reason, love and power of will are perfections of man.

The power of miracle is the power of imagination.

What yesterday was still religion is no longer such today; and what today is atheism, tomorrow will be religion.

To theology, ... only what it holds sacred is true, whereas to philosophy, only what holds true is sacred.

Whoever wants the "I" to yield up its mysterious and tremendous secret must stop it from looking perpetually in the mirror, must stop the little ego's fascination with its own image.

Wisdom, itself, is often an abstraction associated not with fact or reality but with the man who asserts it and the manner of its assertion.

Food didn't kill people, for God's sake, people killed people. With their harping, and criticizing, and careful living.

For a deed to be totally pure, it must be done without any thought of reward, whether worldly or divine.

You can’t dress rehearse the bad moments.

Theme-park approach to nature. We judge plants and animals by whether they're entertaining to us. We gravitate toward animals and plants that are big, dramatic, beautiful and at eye-level.

In the industrial nations, there's a sense that Africa would go under without development aid. But believe me, Africa existed before you Europeans came along. And we didn't do all that poorly either.

Evil on itself shall back recoil.

Nobody reads a mystery to get to the middle. They read it to get to the end. If it's a letdown, they won't buy anymore. The first page sells that book. The last page sells your next book.

Ignorant men do not know what good they hold in their hands until they've flung it away.