It is seldom seen how the victories and conquests made are offset by the expenses incurred in their name; the policy of the rulers is usually limited to the acquisition of trifles at the cost of great losses. The most remarkable successes usually reduce the real potential of the power.
Religion is nothing but an art of occupying the limited mind of man with things which he is unable to understand.
Religion as such is an enemy of human joys and prosperity. Blessed are the poor! Blessed are those who cry! Blessed are those who suffer! Woe to those who live in gaiety and debauchery! These are the discoveries preached by Christianity!
Religion is a restraint for people of intemperate character or bound by certain circumstances of life. The fear of God keeps sinless only those who can no longer really desire something or are unable to do it.
Religion only consoles those who are unable to perceive it; the promise of a reward can only tempt those who do not think of the loathsome, hateful, and violent character which religion ascribes to God.
The most uncertain thing in any religion is its foundation.
The priests understood that by serving gods, they were actually serving themselves, thus having the opportunity to very easily appropriate the gifts, objects and sacrifices brought to beings who never claimed all these things.
A government established by force is kept in power also by force.
Death for certain beliefs proves as little the truth or supremacy of that belief, as death in battle does not or the supremacy of that belief, just as death in battle can in no way serve as a proof of the ruler's righteousness, for the interests of which many madmen are ready to give their lives.
Conscience is an inner judge that appreciates in what case and to what extent our deeds can be praised or blamed by our neighbor.
It is enough to look at things without prejudice to convince us that priests are extremely dangerous people. Their primary goal is to control people's reason and then rob their wallets.
Fear has always been and always will be the most effective way to deceive and control people.
Superstition is a passing phenomenon; no power can be of long duration unless it is based on sincerity, reason, and justice.
Superstition, once it has taken possession of a man's soul, can rob him of peace forever.
Only the wildest of barbarians, the meanest ambition, the blindest vanity could have laid the foundations of the dogma of eternal torments in hell.
Vanity and greed have always been the chief vices of the clergy.
Tolerance and humanity, the chief virtues of any moral system, are absolutely incompatible with religious prejudice.
To give one's life for some religion is not to prove that this religion is true and spiritual; at best it only proves the martyrs' belief that their religion is so. Some enthusiast who goes to death for the sake of religion shows only religious fanaticism, which can sometimes be stronger than the will to live.
Christian morality turns out to be specially invented to subjugate and subjugate human nature with the help of fictitious ghosts, and that is precisely why most people have not been influenced by it.
Man is a sensitive, responsive, rational and wise being, tending towards self-preservation and happiness.
Man will always seek pleasure, because it is characteristic of him to love everything that enlightens him, makes his existence pleasant; it is impossible to make man love trouble and misery.
Man is not free for a single moment of his life.
Man is superstitious only because he is shy, and he is shy only because he is ignorant.
The human race, in all countries, has become a victim of the clergy, who called religion a system, and which they invented to keep men under control, men whose imaginations they enslaved, whose good sense they darkened and whose reason they want to destroy.
The more we think about the dogmas and principles of religion, the more we are convinced that their primary purpose is to protect the interests of tyrants and clergy at the expense of social interests.
The more carefully we study religion, the more we will be convinced that its main purpose is the welfare of the clergy.
Whatever the theologians say, it is not difficult to understand that the Christian doctrine was finally established by the power of kings and emperors; the theological dogmas, which were supposed to be pleasing to God, were preached every time with the help of force; true proved to be that religion which was preached by the emperor; a believer was considered to be one who possessed sufficient power and authority to destroy the declared enemies of God Himself.
To understand the real essence of morality, men need neither theology nor revelations nor gods; they just need common sense.
For our happiness to be complete, we need affection and support from society, and society must ultimately respect us, salute us, work for our happiness, as much as we work for its well-being; this mutual bond is called moral duty.
In pain, in misfortune, we console ourselves with hope.