I Have Known Men Who Have Been

The Christian Religion, Outwardly And Even In Intention Humble, Does, Without Meaning It, Teach Man To Regard Himself As The Most Important Of All Created Things. Man Surveys The Starry Heavens And Hears With His Ears Of The Plurality Of Worlds; Yet His Religion Bids Him Believe That His Alone Out Of These Innumerable Spheres Is The Object Of His Master's Love And Sacrifice.

Humiliation Is A Guest That Only Comes To Those Who Have Made Ready His Resting-place, And Will Give Him A Fair Welcome. ... No One Can Disgrace You Save Yourself.

Fame! It Is The Flower Of A Day, That Dies When The Next Sun Rises.

Christianity ... Has Produced The Iniquities Of The Inquisition, The Egotism And Celibacy Of The Monasteries, The Fury Of Religious Wars, The Ferocity Of The Hussite, Of The Catholic, Of The Puritan, Of The Spaniard, Of The Irish Orangeman And Of The Irish Papist; It Has Divided Families, Alienated Friends, Lighted The Torch Of Civil War, And Borne The Virgin And The Greybeard To The Burning Pile, Broken Delicate Limbs Upon The Wheel And Wrung The Souls And Bodies Of Innocent Creatures On The Rack; All This It Has Done, And Done In The Name Of God.

Christianity Has Ever Been The Enemy Of Human Love; It Has Forever Cursed And Expelled And Crucified The One Passion Which Sweetens And Smiles On Human Life, Which Makes The Desert Blossom As The Rose, And Which Glorifies The Common Things And Common Ways Of Earth. It Made Of This, The Angel Of Life, A Shape Of Sin And Darkness ... Even In The Unions Which It Reluctantly Permitted, It Degraded And Dwarfed The Passion Which It Could Not Entirely Exclude, And Permitted It Coarsely To Exist For The Mere Necessity Of Procreation.