Quotations "There have been Saviours in every age of the world. It is all just a fairy tale, like the idea of Santa Claus." — Mark Twain, Mark Twain, A Biography "Man is the religious animal. He is the only religious animal. He is the only animal that has the true religion — several of them He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself, and cuts his throat if his theology isn't straight." — Mark Twain "I fully subscribe to the judgment of those writers who maintain that of all the differences between man and the lower animals, the moral sense or conscience is by far the most important . . . As man is a social animal, it is almost certain that he would inherit a tendency to be faithful to his comrades, and obedient to the leader of his tribe; for these qualities are common to most social animals. He would consequently possess some capacity for self— command. . . As man advances in civilisation, and small tribes are united into larger communities, the simplest reason would tell each individual that he ought to extend his social instincts and sympathies to all the members of the same nation, though personally unknown to him. This point being once reached, there is only an artificial barrier to prevent his sympathies extending to the men of all nations and races." — Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man, 1871 "My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat them like rational creatures.... I earnestly wish to point out in what true dignity and human happiness consists. I wish to persuade women to endeavor to acquire strength, both of mind and body.... only that education deserves emphatically to be termed cultivation of mind, which teaches young people how to begin to think.... For it is the right use of reason alone which makes us independent of everything — excepting the unclouded reason — "Whose service is perfect freedom." It is vain to expect virtue from women till they are in some degree independent of men.... Would men but generously snap our chains, and be content with rational fellowship instead of slavish obedience, they would find us more observant daughters, more affectionate sisters, more faithful wives, more reasonable mothers — in a word, better citizens." — Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, 1792 "My personal beliefs are that the distilled essence of all religions is (or should be!) very simply: the existence of a power greater than man — unproven, but a mental need in most people. More practically: to aim to do a maximum of conscious good and a minimum of conscious evil in our allotted life span. With these simple beliefs we can cut out all religious mumbo— jumbo, humbug and spectacle — but, we have to make up our own minds as to the relative right or wrong of any action we contemplate. However, it is only by taking that very responsibility that we stand a chance of growing up into mature, responsible individuals, owned by ourselves and true to ourselves, instead of always being puppets, whose moral strings are forever manipulated by others." — Derek Partridge, British Journalist, T.V. News Anchorman