471 "Imagination is more important than knowledge." -- Albert Einstein

3619 "The fetters imposed on liberty at home have ever been forged out of the weapons provided for defense against real, pretended, or imaginary dangers from abroad." -- James Madison, 4th US president (1751-1836)

1293 "In a footnote to the Supreme Court's 1961 Torcaso v. Watkins decisions, Justice Hugo Black wrote, 'Among religions in this country which do not teach what would generally be considered a belief in the existence of God is Buddhism, Taoism, Ethical Culture, Secular Humanism, and others.' The Torcaso case dealt with religious tests for public office; it has nothing to do with public schools. The justice's comment is far from a finding that humanism is being taught in the schools." Robert Boston, Why The Religious Right is Wrong About Separation of Church & State (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus, 1993), pp. 229-30.

142 "Fundamentalist: One who's mental and wants your funds."

861 "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all it's contents." - HPL

1536 "But if oxen (and horses) and lions ... could draw with hands and create works of art like those made by men, horses would draw pictures of gods like horses, and oxen of gods like oxen . . . . Aethiopians have gods with snub noses and black hair, Thracians have gods with grey eyes and red hair." Xenophanes, quoted in Stewart Guthrie, Faces in the Clouds: A New Theory of Religion (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), p. 179.

202 "Having a 'no smoking section' in a restaurant is like having a 'no pissing section' in a swimming-pool." -- Victor Lewis-Smith

2088 "Would you tax God?" asks a defender of church tax exemption. Well, if there were a God he should be able to pay his own way and support his own business. If not, then he should do like other business men and close up shop." [E. Haldeman-Julius, "The Church Is a Burden, Not a Benefit, In Social Life"]

176 "Nuclear physics is much easier than tax law. It's rational and always works the same way." -- Jerold Rochwald

1123 "Would you have mansions of gold in the sky, and live in a shack, here in the back? Would you have wings up in heaven to fly, While you live here with rags on your back? IWW song, from The Little Red Songbook, Songs to fan the flames of discontent."

2609 "The major contribution of Protestant thought to the knowledge of mankind is its massive proof that God is a bore." [H.L. Mencken]

1822 Any belief worth having must survive doubt.

1671 "...in matters of faith, inconvenient evidence is always suppressed while contradictions go unnoticed." Gore Vidal

302 "Who says I am not under the special protection of God?" -- Adolph Hitler

3513 "Homer and Hesiod have ascribed to the gods all things that are a shame and a disgrace among mortals, stealing and adulteries and deceivings on one another. ....Mortals deem that gods are begotten as they are, and have clothes like theirs, and force, and form...yes, and if oxen and horses or lions had hands, and could paint with their hands, and produce works of art as men do, horses would paint forms of gods like horses, and oxen like oxen, and make their bodies in the image of their several kinds....The Ethiopians make their gods black and snub-nosed; the Thracians say theirs have blue eyes and red hair." [Xenophanes, 500BC]

3387 "A man cannot be happy who believes in hell, any more than he can sweeten his coffee with a pickle." [Lemuel K. Washburn, _Is The Bible Worth Reading And Other Essays_]

845 "When we lose the right to be different, we lose the privilege to be free." -- Charles Evans Hughes

3145 "We need a new cosmology. New Gods. New Sacraments. Another drink." [Patti Smith]

2468 "There are no gods in my coffee cup." [Tony Lawrence]

1924 "Had I been present at the creation of the world, I would have proposed some improvements." [Alfonso X (Alfonso the Wise; 1226-1284; King of Castile)]