The study of theology, as it stands in the Christian churches, is the study of nothing.

To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.

The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.

A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.

He who dares not offend cannot be honest.

[A]ll churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Muslim, are simply human inventions. They use fear to enslave us. They are a monopoly for power and profit.

If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.

The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.

Religion is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize humankind; and, for my part, I sincerely detest it as I detest everything that is cruel.

Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.

Proof, once again, that reality was not objective, but always waiting to be reshaped and redefined by one's attitude.

The life of a mother is the life of a child: you are two blossoms on a single branch.

The topics which language limits us to aren’t much worth discussing in the first place.(attrib: F.L. Vanderson)

Professional learning does not advance… through the inexorable confirmation of previous certainties, but through a systematic challenge to our present conceptions

Everybody thinks theyll never get married at your age. You think you can go on all your life being single, but you suddenly find out that you cant.

I detest war; it ruins conversation

If I hazard a guess as to the most endemic, prevalent anxiety among human beings-including fear of death, abandonment, loneliness-nothing is more prevalent than the fear of one another.

To me, the most obscene word in our language is celibacy.

But how do you wait for heaven And who has that much time And how do you keep your feet on the ground When you know, that you were born, you were born to fly

I have actual dreams of Bruce Springsteen calling me up on stage to wear a bandanna and play rhythm guitar next to Little Steven.