Thanks to the corruption of Christianity, our life has become worse than that of the pagans.
The human being must needs be a slave. His only choice is whose: if it is of his passions, then it will necessarily be of people also; if it is of his spiritual source, then only of God.
It flatters everyone to have the highest master.
At the present day, cruelty is more a consequence of the subtle encouragement of your selfishness by the religious doctrine that all which we now suppose to be evil will be brought to a good end; doctrine practically issuing, not in less earnest efforts that the immediate unpleasantness may be averted from ourselves, but in our remaining satisfied in the contemplation of its ultimate objects, when it is inflicted on others.
— John Ruskin
“The poor ye have always with you.” If ever a scripture has been wrested to the devil’s service, this is that scripture. That in spite of all our great advances we have yet with us the poor, those who, without fault of their own, cannot get healthful and wholesome conditions of life, is our fault and our shame. Who that looks about him can fail to see that it is only the injustice that denies natural opportunities to labor, and robs the producer of the fruits of his toil, that prevents us all from being rich?
— Henry George
The majority of world’s crimes and evil occur as a result of people’s mistrust of reason: “Believe or be damned.” This is the chief cause of evil. By thoughtlessly accepting the things he should have analyzed with his reason, a human being ultimately loses his capacity to reason and is actually damned himself and leads his neighbors into sin. People’s salvation lies solely in learning how to reason for themselves so they can properly direct their thoughts.
— Emerson
The system under which all the nations of the world operate is founded on the crudest deception, on the deepest ignorance, or on a combination of the two; thus, it does not matter what changes you make to the foundations upon which this system stands, it cannot produce the good for the people; on the contrary—its practical consequences will necessarily always be evil.
— Robert Owen
The greater the respect surrounding an object, custom or law, the more carefully we must investigate its right to be respected.
Nothing other than an exposure of religious lies and a free establishment of religious truth by every individual for themselves can begin fixing the existing evil of life.
