All our lives we are putting pennies — our most golden pennies — into penny-in-the-slot machines that are almost always empty. – Logan Pearsall Smith

I never knew whether to pity or congratulate a man on coming to his senses. – William Makepeace Thackeray

I do not believe in revealed religion — I will have nothing to do with your immortality; we are miserable enough in this life, without speculating on another. – Lord Byron, 1778-1824, letter to Rev. Francis Hodgson, 1811