If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.

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

I can’t see (or feel) the conflict between love and religion. To me they’re the same thing.

God is a concept by which we measure our pain.

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

Talk to me about the truth of religion and I’ll listen gladly. Talk to me about the duty of religion and I’ll listen submissively. But don’t come talking to me about the consolations of religion or I shall suspect that you don’t understand.

An irreligious man is not one who denies the gods of the majority, but one who applies to the gods the opinions of the majority. For what most men say about the gods are not ideas derived from sensation, but false opinions, according to which the greatest evils come to the wicked, and the greatest blessings come to the good from the gods.

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.

Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

One religion is as true as another.

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

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

Whatsoever is, is in God.