The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine - Part 2, Footnotes

[The Marcionists (a Christian sect) asserted that the evangelists were filled with falsities. The Manichaeans, who formed a very numerous sect at the commencement of Christianity, rejected as false all the New Testament, and showed other writings quite different that they gave for authentic. The Corinthians, like the Marcionists, admitted not the Acts of the Apostles. The Encratites and the Sevenians adopted neither the Acts, nor the Epistles of Paul. Chrysostom, in a homily which he made upon the Acts of the Apostles, says that in his time, about the year 400, many people knew nothing either of the author or of the book. St. Irene, who lived before that time, reports that the Valentinians, like several other sects of the Christians, accused the scriptures of being filled with imperfections, errors, and contradictions. The Ebionites, or Nazarenes, who were the first Christians, rejected all the Epistles of Paul, and regarded him as an impostor. They report, among other things, that he was originally a Pagan; that he came to Jerusalem, where he lived some time; and that having a mind to marry the daughter of the high priest, he had himself been circumcised; but that not being able to obtain her, he quarrelled with the Jews and wrote against circumcision, and against the observation of the Sabbath, and against all the legal ordinances.—Author.] [Much abridged from the Exam. Crit. de la Vie de St. Paul, by N.A. Boulanger, 1770.—Editor.]" [On ancient Christian sects and how they differed about the New Testament text and found it full of errors and additions]

The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine - Part 2, Chapter 3

"The study of theology as it stands in Christian churches, is the study of nothing; it is founded on nothing; it rests on no principles; it proceeds by no authorities; it has no data; it can demonstrate nothing; and admits of no conclusion. Not any thing can be studied as a science without our being in possession of the principles upon which it is founded; and as this is not the case with Christian theology, it is therefore the study of nothing." [A harsh rebuke of Christianity]

"[if a] revolution in the system of religion takes place, every preacher ought to be a philosopher. Most certainly, and every house of devotion a school of science." [Replacing religion with philosophy and science]

The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine - Part 2, Chapter 1

"It has often been said that any thing may be proved from the Bible."

"It has been the practice of all Christian commentators on the Bible, and of all Christian priests and preachers, to impose the Bible on the world as a mass of truth, and as the word of God; they have disputed and wrangled, and have anathematized each other about the supposable meaning of particular parts and passages therein; one has said and insisted that such a passage meant such a thing, another that it meant directly the contrary, and a third, that it meant neither one nor the other, but something different from both; and this they have called understanding the Bible." [On the interpretors and commentators of holy books]

"As to the ancient historians, from Herodotus to Tacitus, we credit them as far as they relate things probable and credible, and no further: for if we do, we must believe the two miracles which Tacitus relates were performed by Vespasian, that of curing a lame man, and a blind man, in just the same manner as the same things are told of Jesus Christ by his historians. We must also believe the miracles cited by Josephus, that of the sea of Pamphilia opening to let Alexander and his army pass, as is related of the Red Sea in Exodus. These miracles are quite as well authenticated as the Bible miracles, and yet we do not believe them." [On claims of miracles]

"Take away from Genesis the belief that Moses was the author, on which only the strange belief that it is the word of God has stood, and there remains nothing of Genesis but an anonymous book of stories, fables, and traditionary or invented absurdities, or of downright lies. The story of Eve and the serpent, and of Noah and his ark, drops to a level with the Arabian Tales, without the merit of being entertaining, and the account of men living to eight and nine hundred years becomes as fabulous as the immortality of the giants of the Mythology." [Comparing the mythology of Arabian Nights with the Bible]

"Those who knew Benjamin Franklin will recollect, that his mind was ever young; his temper ever serene; science, that never grows grey, was always his mistress. He was never without an object; for when we cease to have an object we become like an invalid in an hospital waiting for death." [Always have a purpose in life]

The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine - Part 1, Recapitulation

Here is the whole chapter with the parts of interest highlighted. Thomas Paine summarises why he believes revelation to humans is an erroneous belief and that the signs of God are in his creation and that Deism is the original religion and is not in want of later mythology. The conclusions of his arguments are easily criticised or proven wrong but the perspective of a Deist is a refreshing change to the recycled garbage we hear from other kinds of theists. Also, he ends the first part of his book admirably by emphasising freedom of religion.

"HAVING now extended the subject to a greater length than I first intended, I shall bring it to a close by abstracting a summary from the whole.
"First, That the idea or belief of a word of God existing in print, or in writing, or in speech, is inconsistent in itself for the reasons already assigned. These reasons, among many others, are the want of an universal language; the mutability of language; the errors to which translations are subject, the possibility of totally suppressing such a word; the probability of altering it, or of fabricating the whole, and imposing it upon the world.
Secondly, That the Creation we behold is the real and ever existing word of God, in which we cannot be deceived. It proclaimeth his power, it demonstrates his wisdom, it manifests his goodness and beneficence.
"Thirdly, That the moral duty of man consists in imitating the moral goodness and beneficence of God manifested in the creation towards all his creatures. That seeing as we daily do the goodness of God to all men, it is an example calling upon all men to practise the same towards each other; and, consequently, that every thing of persecution and revenge between man and man, and every thing of cruelty to animals, is a violation of moral duty.
"I trouble not myself about the manner of future existence. I content myself with believing, even to positive conviction, that the power that gave me existence is able to continue it, in any form and manner he pleases, either with or without this body; and it appears more probable to me that I shall continue to exist hereafter than that I should have had existence, as I now have, before that existence began.
"It is certain that, in one point, all nations of the earth and all religions agree. All believe in a God. The things in which they disgrace are the redundancies annexed to that belief; and therefore, if ever an universal religion should prevail, it will not be believing any thing new, but in getting rid of redundancies, and believing as man believed at first. Adam, if ever there was such a man, was created a Deist; but in the mean time, let every man follow, as he has a right to do, the religion and worship he prefers."

The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine - Part 1, Chapter 13

Thomas Paine explaining the root of his displeasure with the core doctrine of Christianity and how repulsed he was at the story of God torturing and murdering his son as an excuse to save a minuscule portion of humanity who have little or no understanding of the message of Christ or what is written in the bible.

"From the time I was capable of conceiving an idea, and acting upon it by reflection, I either doubted the truth of the christian system, or thought it to be a strange affair; I scarcely knew which it was: but I well remember, when about seven or eight years of age, hearing a sermon read by a relation of mine, who was a great devotee of the church, upon the subject of what is called Redemption by the death of the Son of God. After the sermon was ended, I went into the garden, and as I was going down the garden steps (for I perfectly recollect the spot) I revolted at the recollection of what I had heard, and thought to myself that it was making God Almighty act like a passionate man, that killed his son, when he could not revenge himself any other way; and as I was sure a man would be hanged that did such a thing, I could not see for what purpose they preached such sermons. This was not one of those kind of thoughts that had any thing in it of childish levity; it was to me a serious reflection, arising from the idea I had that God was too good to do such an action, and also too almighty to be under any necessity of doing it. I believe in the same manner to this moment; and I moreover believe, that any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child, cannot be a true system.
"It seems as if parents of the christian profession were ashamed to tell their children any thing about the principles of their religion. They sometimes instruct them in morals, and talk to them of the goodness of what they call Providence; for the Christian mythology has five deities: there is God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, the God Providence, and the Goddess Nature. But the christian story of God the Father putting his son to death, or employing people to do it, (for that is the plain language of the story,) cannot be told by a parent to a child; and to tell him that it was done to make mankind happier and better, is making the story still worse; as if mankind could be improved by the example of murder; and to tell him that all this is a mystery, is only making an excuse for the incredibility of it."

And a little aside on the magnitude of the universe and how little and limited the universe looks if we are to believe the scriptures:

"Though it is not a direct article of the christian system that this world that we inhabit is the whole of the habitable creation, yet it is so worked up therewith, from what is called the Mosaic account of the creation, the story of Eve and the apple, and the counterpart of that story, the death of the Son of God, that to believe otherwise, that is, to believe that God created a plurality of worlds, at least as numerous as what we call stars, renders the christian system of faith at once little and ridiculous; and scatters it in the mind like feathers in the air. The two beliefs can not be held together in the same mind; and he who thinks that he believes both, has thought but little of either."

The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine - Part 1, Chapter 12

"[A child] afterwards goes to school, where its genius is killed by the barren study of a dead language, and the philosopher is lost in the linguist." [Concerning the waste of energy and intellectual capacity in youth who waste their time studying pointless/dead subjects]

The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine - Part 1, Chapter 8

One of the core precepts of Christianity and Islam is the doctrine of redemption. We picture a man falling to his knees and begging the creator for forgiveness. He cries and scowls and calls out in agony admitting every sin he has committed or imagined he committed and an ever-satisfied god listens to His slave ready to bestow His mercy and throw kindness on the prostrated and humbled figure. This is a spiritually satisfying activity for those who truly need to find redemption, but it is a mockery of one's self-worth for those who do it out of expectation or disinginuity. Here Thomas Paine explains what this kind of grovelling and destruction of self-confidence does to a man and how lowliness makes him proud and judgemental of others.

"It is by his being taught to contemplate himself as an out-law, as an out-cast, as a beggar, as a mumper, as one thrown as it were on a dunghill, at an immense distance from his Creator, and who must make his approaches by creeping, and cringing to intermediate beings, that he conceives either a contemptuous disregard for everything under the name of religion, or becomes indifferent, or turns what he calls devout. In the latter case, he consumes his life in grief, or the affectation of it. His prayers are reproaches. His humility is ingratitude. He calls himself a worm, and the fertile earth a dunghill; and all the blessings of life by the thankless name of vanities. He despises the choicest gift of God to man, the GIFT OF REASON; and having endeavoured to force upon himself the belief of a system against which reason revolts, he ungratefully calls it human reason, as if man could give reason to himself.


"Yet, with all this strange appearance of humility, and this contempt for human reason, he ventures into the boldest presumptions. He finds fault with everything. His selfishness is never satisfied; his ingratitude is never at an end. He takes on himself to direct the Almighty what to do, even in the government of the universe. He prays dictatorially. When it is sunshine, he prays for rain, and when it is rain, he prays for sunshine. He follows the same idea in everything that he prays for; for what is the amount of all his prayers, but an attempt to make the Almighty change his mind, and act otherwise than he does? It is as if he were to say—thou knowest not so well as I."

The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine - Part 1, Chapter 1

"It is necessary to the happiness of man, that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.


"It is impossible to calculate the moral mischief, if I may so express it, that mental lying has produced in society. When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind, as to subscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe, he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime. He takes up the trade of a priest for the sake of gain, and, in order to qualify himself for that trade, he begins with a perjury. Can we conceive anything more destructive to morality than this?"

The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence - Eleventh Letter

I was reading this book to see what "spiritual" insights could be offered by it and it struck me how similar the attitudes are in the Abrahamic traditions. When it comes to sickness and the spiritual struggle it represents, Jews, Christians and Muslims share many of the sentiments presented here in this letter. While some attitudes and teachings are comforting, others come across as insensitive and these are caused by an inclination to look at a problem solely from one perspective and not appreciate the physical effects of sickness on the body, emotions and thoughts. Such people's minds are warped by their understanding of faith, leading to outrageous statements like the opening line of this letter to a sick person who asks the Brother to pray for him in his time of need:

Eleventh Letter: I do not pray that you may be delivered from your pains; but I pray earnestly that God gives you strength and patience to bear them as long as He pleases. Comfort yourself with Him who holds you fastened to the cross. He will loose you when He thinks fit. Happy are those who suffer with Him. Accustom yourself to suffer in that manner, and seek from Him the strength to endure as much, and as long, as He judges necessary for you.

Worldly people do not comprehend these truths. It is not surprising though, since they suffer like what they are and not like Christians. They see sickness as a pain against nature and not as a favor from God. Seeing it only in that light, they find nothing in it but grief and distress. But those who consider sickness as coming from the hand of God, out of His mercy and as the means He uses for their salvation, commonly find sweetness and consolation in it.

I pray that you see that God is often nearer to us and present within us in sickness than in health. Do not rely completely on another physician because He reserves your cure to Himself. Put all your trust in God. You will soon find the effects in your recovery, which we often delay by putting greater faith in medicine than in God. Whatever remedies you use, they will succeed only so far as He permits. When pains come from God, only He can ultimately cure them. He often sends sickness to the body to cure diseases of the soul. Comfort yourself with the Sovereign Physician of both soul and body.

I expect you will say that I am very much at ease, and that I eat and drink at the table of the Lord. You have reason. But think how painful it would be to the greatest criminal in the world to eat at the king's table and be served by him, yet have no assurance of pardon? I believe he would feel an anxiety that nothing could calm except his trust in the goodness of his sovereign. So I assure you, that whatever pleasures I taste at the table of my King, my sins, ever present before my eyes, as well as the uncertainty of my pardon, torment me. Though I accept that torment as something pleasing to God.

Be satisfied with the condition in which God places you. However happy you may think me, I envy you. Pain and suffering would be a paradise to me, if I could suffer with my God. The greatest pleasures would be hell if I relished them without Him. My only consolation would be to suffer something for His sake.

I must, in a little time, go to God. What comforts me in this life is that I now see Him by faith. I see Him in such a manner that I sometimes say, I believe no more, but I see. I feel what faith teaches us, and, in that assurance and that practice of faith, I live and die with Him.

Stay with God always for He is the only support and comfort for your affliction. I shall beseech Him to be with you. I present my service.

The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells

The study of Nature makes a man at last as remorseless as Nature. I have gone on, not heeding anything but the question I was pursuing; [Dr. Moreau responds to his creations being called abominations; ethics doesn't come into it]

“This silly ass of a world,” he said; “what a muddle it all is! I haven't had any life. I wonder when it's going to begin. Sixteen years being bullied by nurses and schoolmasters at their own sweet will; five in London grinding hard at medicine, bad food, shabby lodgings, shabby clothes, shabby vice, a blunder,—I didn't know any better,—and hustled off to this beastly island. Ten years here! What's it all for, Prendick? Are we bubbles blown by a baby?” [Montgomery musing on the meaning of life]

...he got up, and went for the brandy. “Drink!” he said returning, “you logic-chopping, chalky-faced saint of an atheist, drink!” [A drunk Montgomery pressing Prendick]

I may have caught something of the natural wildness of my companions. They say that terror is a disease, and anyhow I can witness that for several years now a restless fear has dwelt in my mind. [Prendick analysing his experience on the island]

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorn

Here was the iron link of mutual crime, which neither he nor she could break. Like all other ties, it brought along with it its obligations. [Hester Pryne and Arthur Dimmesdale are bound together by their crime]

May God forgive us both. We are not, Hester, the worst sinners in the world. There is one worse than even the polluted priest! That old man's revenge has been blacker than my sin. He has violated, in cold blood, the sanctity of a human heart. Thou and I, Hester, never did so! [Talking about the malevolent Roger Chillingworth who is psychologically torturing the minister]

...the infectious poison of that sin had been thus rapidly diffused throughout his moral system.

The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell, Chapter 15: The Value of Philosophy

"...many men, under the influence of science or of practical affairs, are inclined to doubt whether philosophy is anything better than innocent but useless trifling, hair-splitting distinctions, and controversies on matters concerning which knowledge is impossible." [hehe]

Philosophy, like all other studies, aims primarily at knowledge. The knowledge it aims at is the kind of knowledge which gives unity and system to the body of the sciences, and the kind which results from a critical examination of the grounds of our convictions, prejudices, and beliefs. But it cannot be maintained that philosophy has had any very great measure of success in its attempts to provide definite answers to its questions. If you ask a mathematician, a mineralogist, a historian, or any other man of learning, what definite body of truths has been ascertained by his science, his answer will last as long as you are willing to listen. But if you put the same question to a philosopher, he will, if he is candid, have to confess that his study has not achieved positive results such as have been achieved by other sciences. It is true that this is partly accounted for by the fact that, as soon as definite knowledge concerning any subject becomes possible, this subject ceases to be called philosophy, and becomes a separate science. [the label of "philosophy" for an idea is lost when it evolves into a definite field of science. Perhaps the most pragmatic purpose of philosophy is it teaches us how to think about problems and interpret solutions. It is a fundamental building block of the logical thought process used in science]

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Part 4, chapter 4

I thought this chapter was a powerful fictional portrayal of despair, hopelessness and existentialism. Some quotes from the discussion between Raskolnikov and Sonia:

"And how she cried to-day! Her mind is unhinged, haven't you noticed it? At one minute she is worrying like a child that everything should be right to-morrow, the lunch and all that.... Then she is wringing her hands, spitting blood, weeping, and all at once she will begin knocking her head against the wall, in despair. Then she will be comforted again. She builds all her hopes on you;" [Sonia talking about her adoptive mother, Katerina Ivanova, whom she is supporting by prostituting herself]

But you are a great sinner, that's true," he added almost solemnly, "and your worst sin is that you have destroyed and betrayed yourself for nothing. Isn't that fearful? Isn't it fearful that you are living in this filth which you loathe so, and at the same time you know yourself (you've only to open your eyes) that you are not helping anyone by it, not saving anyone from anything? Tell me," he went on almost in a frenzy, "how this shame and degradation can exist in you side by side with other, opposite, holy feelings? It would be better, a thousand times better and wiser to leap into the water and end it all!" 

"There are three ways before her," he thought, "the canal, the madhouse, or... at last to sink into depravity which obscures the mind and turns the heart to stone." [Remember this when you see suicide, madness and depravity]

"So you pray to God a great deal, Sonia?" he asked her.
Sonia did not speak; he stood beside her waiting for an answer.
"What should I be without God?" she whispered rapidly, forcibly, glancing at him with suddenly flashing eyes, and squeezing his hand.
"Ah, so that is it!" he thought.
"And what does God do for you?" he asked, probing her further.
Sonia was silent a long while, as though she could not answer. Her weak chest kept heaving with emotion.
"Be silent! Don't ask! You don't deserve!" she cried suddenly, looking sternly and wrathfully at him.
"That's it, that's it," he repeated to himself.
"He does everything," she whispered quickly, looking down again.
"That's the way out! That's the explanation," he decided, scrutinising her with eager curiosity, with a new, strange, almost morbid feeling. He gazed at that pale, thin, irregular, angular little face, those soft blue eyes, which could flash with such fire, such stern energy, that little body still shaking with indignation and anger—and it all seemed to him more and more strange, almost impossible. "She is a religious maniac!" he repeated to himself. [Spoiler... By the end of the book Sonia becomes his wife and they live together in happiness and he starts to believe again. The role of God is not to save people in this world, but Raskolnikov is so small minded he hurts Sonia's feelings by saying what he says and takes the guise of a cruel atheist just to be mean because he feels evil in himself and wants to hurt others]

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Part 3, Chapter 5

"Everything with them is 'the influence of environment,' and nothing else. Their favourite phrase! From which it follows that, if society is normally organised, all crime will cease at once, since there will be nothing to protest against and all men will become righteous in one instant. Human nature is not taken into account, it is excluded, it's not supposed to exist! They don't recognise that humanity, developing by a historical living process, will become at last a normal society, but they believe that a social system that has come out of some mathematical brain is going to organise all humanity at once and make it just and sinless in an instant, quicker than any living process! That's why they instinctively dislike history, 'nothing but ugliness and stupidity in it,' and they explain it all as stupidity! That's why they so dislike the living process of life; they don't want a living soul! The living soul demands life, the soul won't obey the rules of mechanics, the soul is an object of suspicion, the soul is retrograde! But what they want though it smells of death and can be made of India-rubber, at least is not alive, has no will, is servile and won't revolt! And it comes in the end to their reducing everything to the building of walls and the planning of rooms and passages in a phalanstery [utopian commune building]! The phalanstery is ready, indeed, but your human nature is not ready for the phalanstery—it wants life, it hasn't completed its vital process, it's too soon for the graveyard! You can't skip over nature by logic. Logic presupposes three possibilities, but there are millions! Cut away a million, and reduce it all to the question of comfort! That's the easiest solution of the problem! It's seductively clear and you mustn't think about it. That's the great thing, you mustn't think! The whole secret of life in two pages of print!" [About the presupposition that people, given a perfect environment, will not resort to crime or sin. Nature vs nurture. They forget that people have souls with desires and potential to great evil as well as good and that people will always err]

I maintain that if the discoveries of Kepler and Newton could not have been made known except by sacrificing the lives of one, a dozen, a hundred, or more men, Newton would have had the right, would indeed have been in duty bound... to eliminate the dozen or the hundred men for the sake of making his discoveries known to the whole of humanity. But it does not follow from that that Newton had a right to murder people right and left and to steal every day in the market. Then, I remember, I maintain in my article that all... well, legislators and leaders of men, such as Lycurgus, Solon, Mahomet, Napoleon, and so on, were all without exception criminals, from the very fact that, making a new law, they transgressed the ancient one, handed down from their ancestors and held sacred by the people, and they did not stop short at bloodshed either, if that bloodshed—often of innocent persons fighting bravely in defence of ancient law—were of use to their cause. It's remarkable, in fact, that the majority, indeed, of these benefactors and leaders of humanity were guilty of terrible carnage. In short, I maintain that all great men or even men a little out of the common, that is to say capable of giving some new word, must from their very nature be criminals—more or less, of course. Otherwise it's hard for them to get out of the common rut; and to remain in the common rut is what they can't submit to, from their very nature again, and to my mind they ought not, indeed, to submit to it. [A justification of crime and bloodshed if it means the replacement of the old regime and results with the new legislators being forgiven for their past transgressions]

The Philosophical Dictionary by Voltaire - Atheism I and II

There are two sections to the question of atheism in Voltaire's book and both contain many excellent quotes. Also his chapter on "Why?" is particularly good. I will relate some quotes that I found entertaining or useful:

"There are two porters at the door of a house; they are asked: 'Can one speak to your master?' 'He is not there,' answers one. 'He is there,' answers the other, 'but he is busy making counterfeit money, forged contracts, daggers and poisons, to undo those who have but accomplished his purposes.' The atheist resembles the first of these porters, the pagan the other. It is clear, therefore, that the pagan offends the Deity more gravely than does the atheist." [Atheism I, Bayle's rendering of Richeome's argument]

"We are intelligent beings: intelligent beings cannot have been formed by a crude, blind, insensible being: there is certainly some difference between the ideas of Newton and the dung of a mule. Newton's intelligence, therefore, came from another intelligence." [Atheism I, An amusing comparison]

"...there is infinity against one to bet, that an intelligent creative cause animates the universe. When one is alone face to face with the infinite, one feels very small." [Atheism I]

"The laws of Moses, it is true, did not teach a life to come, did not threaten punishments after death, did not teach the first Jews the immortality of the soul; but the Jews, far from being atheists, far from believing in avoiding divine vengeance, were the most religious of all men. Not only did they believe in the existence of an eternal God, but they believed Him always present among them; they trembled lest they be punished in themselves, in their wives, in their children, in their posterity, even unto the fourth generation; this curb was very potent." [Atheism II, A wise man would digest this and reconsider what the other Abrahamic faiths teach]

"It looks, therefore, that Bayle should have examined rather which is the more dangerous, fanaticism or atheism. Fanaticism is certainly a thousand times more deadly; for atheism inspires no bloody passion, whereas fanaticism does: atheism is not opposed to crime, but fanaticism causes crimes to be committed." [Atheism II, here Voltaire makes an invalid comparison like comparing apples to oranges and he clearly shows his liberal bias]

Bayle says, in his "Thoughts on the Comets," that there are atheist peoples. The Caffres, the Hottentots, the Topinambous, and many other small nations, have no God: they neither deny nor affirm; they have never heard speak of Him; tell them that there is a God: they will believe it easily; tell them that everything happens through the nature of things; they will believe you equally. To claim that they are atheists is to make the same imputation as if one said they are anti-Cartesian; they are neither for nor against Descartes. They are real children; a child is neither atheist nor deist, he is nothing. [Atheism II]

"Be persuaded that a she-ass has spoken; believe that a fish has swallowed a man and has given him up at the end of three days safe and sound on the shore; have no doubt that the God of the universe ordered one Jewish prophet to eat excrement (Ezekiel), and another prophet to buy two whores and to make with them sons of whoredom (Hosea). These are the very words that the God of truth and purity has been made to utter; believe a hundred things either visibly abominable or mathematically impossible; unless you do, the God of pity will burn you, not only during millions of thousands of millions of centuries in the fire of hell, but through all eternity, whether you have a body, whether you have not." [Atheism II]

"They say: "Our masters paint God to us as the most insensate and the most barbarous of all beings; therefore there is no God; but they should say: therefore our masters attribute to God their absurdities and their furies, therefore God is the contrary of what they proclaim, therefore God is as wise and as good as they make him out mad and wicked." [Atheism II]

Why does one hardly ever do the tenth part of the good one might do? [Why?]

http://history.hanover.edu/texts/voltaire/volathe1.html Atheism I
http://history.hanover.edu/texts/voltaire/volathe2.html Atheism II
http://history.hanover.edu/texts/voltaire/volwhy.html Why?

A Journey into the Interior of the Earth by Jules Verne Chapter 26 The Worst Peril Of All

But his [guide's] habit of silence gained upon him day by day, and was infecting us. External objects produce decided effects upon the brain. A man shut up between four walls soon loses the power to associate words and ideas together. How many prisoners in solitary confinement become idiots, if not mad, for want of exercise for the thinking faculty! [The team wander through endless pitch-dark passages somewhere in the bowels of the Earth]

A Journey into the Interior of the Earth by Jules Verne Chapter 7 A Woman's Courage

Had I been listening to the mad speculations of a lunatic, or to the scientific conclusions of a lofty genius? Where did truth stop? Where did error begin? [Axel talking about his uncle Professor Liedenbrock who tells him of his plan to go to the centre of the Earth]

Ah! women and young girls, how incomprehensible are your feminine hearts! When you are not the timidest, you are the bravest of creatures. Reason has nothing to do with your actions. [Axel's fiancée encourages him to go on the expedition knowing there was a chance she could never see him or her guardian the Professor ever again]

Loving Mr Spock by Barbara Jacobs, Chapter Negotiating Relationships with Aspergers

This chapter contains some useful points which would be helpful in most relationships let alone those with Aspergers. Here are some that I thought useful and I have paraphrased and shortened them accordingly.

Do...

• Give clear unequivecal messages, whether these are instructions, information or requests.
• Be prepared to allow time for these messages to sink in.
• Choose the right time and place for communicating.
• Start sentences with 'I' rather than 'You' as it can interpreted as blame if you start with 'You'.
• Make lists, write things down,... as well as talk.
• Explain things using analogies and past experiences/knowledge.
• Announce changes in advance to give time for adaptation.
• Explain the rules of each social occasion.
• Allow space and time alone for personal hobbies.
• Keep yourself busy with your own life, family, friends and leisure.
• Be logical during an argument.
• Ask for hugs and intimacy when required.

Don't...

• Make assumptions that your partner understands the emotions you are trying to express.
• Overstress or overload the Asperger with love.
• Use conventional expressions like, "Look at me when I'm talking to you!", etc. They are meaningless and insulting to Aspergers.
• Expect any DIY or much help around the house.
• Be confrontational.
• Look for hidden agendas. Aspergers are literal.
• Drop subtle hints. Messages of this kind will not be understood.
• Expect conventional reassurance when you're down.
• Compel your Asperger partner to attend family and social functions.
• Give up trying. Aspergers are very loyal [and worth the effort].

Ghandi Naked Ambition by Jad Adams - Chapter Partition and Death

"... drew up a plan for restoring harmony in a place where some three hundred homes had been plundered and burnt down. His mind filled with the example of Jesus, 'a man who was completely innocent [, who] offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies'. Answering a rhetorical question as to the truth of Jesus' story he said: "To me it is truer than history because I hold it to be possible and enshrines an eternal law - the law of vicarious and innocent suffering taken in its true sense". [p253-4 How Ghandi interpreted and was influenced by Jesus' sacrifice] 

Ghandi always took the pursuit of extreme brahmachari (pacifism) as the only valid response to conflict. Even with genocide occurring between Muslims and Hindus on the eve of the partition of Pakistan and India when more than 5000 had been killed, 20000 injured and hundreds of homes burnt, he stood by his principles! And even when there was a possibility Japan would invade India during the second world war! To Ghandi, to sway away from his values was to him a personal failure and an admission of the failure of his principles, even if it cost thousands of lives.

Observations on the Mussulmauns of India by Mrs. Meer Hassan Ali. Chapter: Letter XXIII

I am acquainted with some Natives who designate the Sufis 'Freemasons' but I imagine this to be rather on account of both possessing a secret, than for any similarity in other respects, between the two orders of people. [Other Muslim groups have had the 'freemason' label thrown at them as well. Typical 'fear of the unknown' approach]

[The two classes of Sufis in India - Saaliks and Majoobs:]

I must explain, however, that there are two classes of the professedly devout Soofies, viz. the Saalik, and the Majoob.[3] 

The true Saalik Soofies are those who give up the world and its allurements, abstain from all sensual enjoyments, rarely associate with their fellow-men, devote themselves entirely to their Creator, and are insensible to any other enjoyments but such as they derive from their devotional exercises.

The Majoob Soofies have no established home nor earthly possessions; they drink wine and spirits freely, when they can obtain them. Many people suppose this class have lost the possession of their reason, and make excuse for their departure from the law on that score. Both classes are nevertheless in great respect, because the latter are not deemed guilty of breaking the law, since they are supposed to be insensible of their actions whilst indulging in the forbidden juice of the grape.

Haafiz,[4] the celebrated poet of Persia, it is related, was a Soofie of the Majoob class, he lived without a thought of providing for future exigencies, accepted the offerings of food from his neighbour, drank wine freely when offered to him, and slept under any shed or hovel he met with, as contented as if he was in the palace of a king.

Saadie,[5] the Persian poet, was, during the latter years of his life, a Saalik Soofie of the most perfect kind. Many of the inspirations of his pen, however, were written in that part of his life which was devoted to the world and its enjoyments; yet most of these indicate purity of thought in a remarkable degree. Saadie's life was subject to the most extraordinary vicissitudes; he possessed an independent mind, scorning every allurement of wealth which might tend to shackle his principles. He is said to have repeatedly rejected offers of patronage and pecuniary assistance from many noblemen, whilst he still loved the world's enticements, declaring he never could submit to confine himself to attendance on an earthly master for any lengthened period. His wit, pleasing deportment, and polite manners, together with the amiable qualities of his heart, rendered him a general favourite, and they who could boast most intimacy with Saadie were the most honoured by the world; for, though but the poor Saadie, he shed a lustre over the assemblies of the great and noble in birth or station, by his brilliant mind.

[FYI, this book is replete with mispronunciations and misspellings but for the most part the information is accurate. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13127]