Religion is essentially the art and the theory of the remaking of man. Man is not a finished creation.
Edmund Burke
Throughout the long period of religious doubt, I had been rendered very unhappy by the gradual loss of belief, but when the process was completed, I found to my surprise that I was quite glad to be done with the whole subject
Bertrand Russell
In religion as in politics it so happens that we have less charity for those who believe half our creed, than for those who deny the whole of it
Charles Caleb Colton
Religion flourishes in greater purity, without than with the aid of Government
James Madison
Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect
James Madison
Religion is the possibility of the removal of every ground of confidence except confidence in God alone
Karl Barth
There is no religion without love, and people may talk as much as they like about their religion, but if it does not teach them to be good and kind to man and beast, it is all a sham.
Anna Sewell
Religion is no more possible without prayer than poetry without language, or music without atmosphere
James Martineau
Religion points to that area of human experience where in one way or another man comes upon mystery as a summons to pilgrimage.
Frederick Buechner
Religion is to mysticism what popularization is to science
Henri Bergson
All religions die of one disease - that of being found out
John Morley
Union of religious sentiments begets a surprising confidence
James Madison
The religious superstition is encouraged by means of the institution of churches, processions, monuments, festivities....The so-called clergy stupefy the masses....They befog the people and keep them in an eternal condition of stupefaction
Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy
Religion is comparable to a childhood neurosis
Sigmund Freud