The abdomen is the reason why man does not easily take himself for a god.

All religion, my friend, is simply evolved out of fraud, fear, greed, imagination, and poetry.

I find distasteful the traditional idea of Christianity which preaches the resurrection of the body. Frankly, I see my body as more of a limitation than a virtue, and I will be glad to be free of it rather than having to continue to cart it around. I prefer to believe that souls can exist independently from bodies.

Split a piece of wood and I am there.

Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is the belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence.

This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.

Strong hope is a much greater stimulant of life than any single realized joy could be.

Imagination is the true magic carpet.

We must lay before him what is in us, not what ought to be in us.

You don't look out there for God, something in the sky, you look in you.

Those who earn an honest living are the beloved of God.

Give us this day our daily faith, but deliver us, dear God, from belief.

I find hope in the darkest of days, and focus in the brightest. I do not judge the universe.

God is not willing to do everything, and thus take away our free will and that share of glory which belongs to us

God has no religion.

We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... We need silence to be able to touch souls.

You will achieve definitive self-fulfilment only in the next life.

We can only know God well when we know our own sin. And those who have known God without knowing their wretchedness have not glorified Him but have glorified themselves.

I defy anyone to imagine an environment more exquisitely designed to provide us with opportunities for spiritual growth than this life of ours.

Whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens.

All major religious traditions carry basically the same message, that is love, compassion and forgiveness ... the important thing is they should be part of our daily lives.