“Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is alwa...” — Thomas Paine Quote

“Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law.”

“I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy.”

“Is it not a species of blasphemy to call the New Testament revealed religion, when we see in it such contradictions and absurdities.”

“My mind is my own church.”

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

“Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us.”

“The major obstacle to a religious renewal is the intellectual classes, who are highly influential and tend to view religion as primitive superstition. They believe that science has left atheism as the only respectable intellectual stance.”

“May you live in such a way that your death is just the beginning of your life.”

“Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise.... During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in laity; in both, superstition, bigotry, and persecution.”

“Fundamentalism's strident denunciation of its opponents is a sign of its weakness, its dogmatic authoritarianism is a pathological mutation of faith.”

“It is possible I can make very little of myself; but this little is everything, and better than what I allow to be made out of me by the might of others, by the training of custom, religion, the laws, the State.”