"It [Catholicism] is by far the most elegant worship, hardly excepting the Greek mythology. What with incense, pictures, statues, altars, shrines, relics, and the real presence, confession, absolution, -- there is something sensible to grasp at. Besides, it leaves no possibility of doubt; for those who swallow their Deity, really and truly, in transubstantiation, can hardly find any thing else otherwise than easy of digestion."

"I do not believe in revealed religion. I will have nothing to do with your immortality; we are miserable enough in this life, without the absurdity of
speculating upon another...The basis of your religion is injustice; The Son of God, the pure, the immaculate, the innocent, is sacrificed for the guilty."

"A material resurrection seems strange and even absurd except for purposes of punishment, and all punishment which is to revenge rather than correct must be morally wrong, and when the World is at an end, what moral or warning purpose can eternal tortures answer?"

"We have fools in all sects, and impostors in most; why should I believe mysteries no one can understand, because written by men who chose to
mistake madness for inspiration and style themselves Evangelicals?"

"All are inclined to believe what they covet, from a lottery-ticket up to a passport to Paradise."

"If I am fool, it is, at least, a doubting one; and I envy no one the certainty of his self-approved wisdom."

"Of religion I know nothing -- at least, in its favor."