Cruel persecutions and intolerance are not accidents, but grow out of the very essence of religion, namely, its absolute claims. – Morris Raphael Cohen

Even the weakest disputant is made so conceited by what he calls religion, as to think himself wiser than the wisest who think differently from him. – Walter Savage Landor

Selfishness is the only real atheism aspiration, unselfishness, the only real religion. – Franklin D. Roosevelt

Religious suffering is at once the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the sentiment of the heartless world, as it is the soul of soulless condition. It is the opium of the people. – John Desmond Bernal

There is a story, which is fairly well known, about when the missionaries came to Africa. They had the Bible and we, the natives, had the land. They said “Let us pray,” and we dutifully shut our eyes. When we opened them, why, they now had the land and we had the Bible. – Desmond M. Tutu, “Religious Human Rights and the Bible”