“Should I ever need religion, I have lost faith in myself.”
- James Daily

“Christian Fundamentalism: The doctrine that there is an absolutely powerful, infinitely knowledgeable, universe-spanning entity that is deeply and personally concerned about my sex life.”
- Andrew Lias

“The Bible has noble poetry in it; and some clever fables; and some blood-drenched history; and a wealth of obscenity; and upwards of a thousand lies.”
- Mark Twain

“Of all the systems of religion that ever were invented, there is none more derogatory to the Almighty, more unedifying to man, more repugnant to reason, and more contradictory in itself, than this thing called Christianity. Too absurd for belief, too impossible to convince, and too inconsistent for practice, it renders the heart torpid, or produces only atheists or fanatics. As an engine of power, it serves the purpose of despotism; and as a means of wealth, the avarice of priests; but so far as respects the good man in general, it leads to nothing here or hereafter.”
- Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason

“The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality.”
- Preface to Androcles and the Lion, George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

“My notion is that religions should be robust enough to trust their members. A religion should arm you to go into the world, not wall you off from it. One thing censorship achieves is to create an aura of forbidden glamour.”
- Roger Ebert

“To hear many religious people talk, one would think God created the torso, head, legs and arms, but the devil slapped on the genitals.”
~Don Schrader

“Give me the storm and tempest of thought and action, rather than the dead calm of ignorance and faith. Banish me from Eden when you will, but first let me eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge. For happiness is the only good, reason the only torch, justice the only worship, and love the only priest.”
- Robert Green Ingersoll

“The man who invented the telescope found out more about heaven than the closed eyes of prayer ever discovered.”
- Robert G. Ingersoll, “The Great Agnostic” (1833-1899)