"Humans, in order to rise above the animals, had learned how to convert themselves into nothing more than organs or limbs or even disposable fingernails and hair of a larger metaphorical organism."

"Maybe if I could bear my life as it is for one day, for one hour, for one minute, I could forget my wish to be something else."

"I have no secret thoughts... Or rather, they're not secret because I've withheld them — if they're unknown, it's because no one asked."

"Boys always argued as if they knew then had the forces of logic on their side, even when they were being completely irrational."

"Only boys were so foolish that they actually believed their arguments were their reasons."

"If a father commands a son to commit a crime so terrible that the son can't do it and live with himself, then is it betrayal for the son to disobey his father?"

"You always do that. Make all the questions harder. I make them truer."

"Law can change how people behave when others are watching — that's all."

"Don't you hate it when somebody knows you better than you know yourself?"

"That's one of those questions, whether human beings are really capable of change, or if all seeming changes are really a matter of framing the existing character in a different moral situation."

"Which is the greater wrong? To hurt the unforgiving one, or hurt the one who has forgiven all?"

"It occurred to me that if my friends were loathsome, perhaps I needed to learn from my enemies."

"Wanting to is the whole lesson; all the rest is practice."

"The doctrine he was going to be teaching, starting tonight, was not the sort of ideology that would stir souls; no one would die for this religion. It would only attracts converts by promising a return to old tradition and by seeming to be the religion of the future."

"Just because you know I had no other choice doesn't make the anger go away. I understand that. But you're a man now. You can put away these childish things."

"They won't be required to sacrifice anything in order to belong to your assembly. A religion that is all sweetness, but no light; all form, but no substance; all tradition, but no precept."

"That's the way it was then, you see. Folks noticed other people's trouble every bit as quick as if it was their own."

"The billion billion paths of his life lay open before him, waiting for his first choices, for the first changes in the world around him to eliminate a million futures every second."

"Land was what they wanted, as if the mere ownership of dirt could turn a peasant into a squire."

"She grunted. “Nothing unusual?” “That’s right.” “Well, if you ask me, that’s pretty unusual right there, if a body was smart enough to notice it.”"

"It's plain that if I married you for brains I was plumb cheated."

"The only true vision comes not from God but from the inmost recesses of the human mind."

"I always tell what I believe. Whether it's true, I'm no more sure than any man."

"“I was ordained,” said the preacher. “No one ordains artists. They ordain themselves.” Just as Taleswapper had expected. The preacher retreated to authority as soon as he feared his ideas could not stand on their own merit. Reasonable argument was impossible when authority became the arbiter."

"As the caterpillar chooses the fairest leaves to her eggs on, so the priest lays his curse on the fairest joys."

"Taleswapper looked at Miller. “I'm nothing,” he said. “A Christian isn’t nothing,” said Taleswapper. “I'm no Christian, either.” “Ah,” said Taleswapper. “A Deist, then, like Tom Jefferson.” The children murmured at his mention of the great man's name. “Taleswapper, I'm a father who loves his children, a husband who loves his wife, a farmer who pays his debts, and a miller without a millstone.”"

"Sunday morning, he decided, is designed to let sinners have a sample of the first day of eternity in hell."

"“I went to the Garden of Love, And saw what I never had seen: A chapel was built in the midst, Where I used to play on the green. And the gates of this chapel were shut, And ‘Thou shalt not’ writ over the door, So I turned to the Garden of Love, That so many sweet flowers bore, And I saw it was filled with graves, And tomb-stones where flowers should be: And priests in black gowns were walking their rounds, And binding with briars my joys and desires.”"

"“I don’t hold with prophets,” said Alvin. “Near as I can tell, they end up just as dead as the next man.”"

"The most evil creatures don’t desire the destruction of everything—they only desire to exploit it for themselves."

"“You must be a prophet right enough,” said Alvin Junior, “cause I can’t understand a thing you said.”"

"“What kind of stupid tale is that, when we just have to look at each other to know it isn’t true?” “It has problems, I admit.”"

"Just because you believe it doesn’t make it so."

"Everything possible to be believed is an image of the truth."

"If something just plain didn’t make sense to Alvin, he didn’t believe it, and no amount of quoting from the Bible would convince him. Now Taleswapper was telling him that he was right to refuse to believe things that made no sense."

"A duel is just two murderers who agree to take turns trying to kill each other."

"It just gripes me hollow, the way God always sneaks in to take the credit."

"Religion makes them crazy. Not a woman I ever met wasn't crazy with religion."

"You can't tell real from a rutabaga."

"Just because the only way you can maintain control over your bodily passions is to sit straight in your chair, knees together, hands delicately arranged in our lap, fingers tightly intertwined, does not mean that I am required to do the same."

"“I've done my best, but the boy is unteachable. He doubts everything, and contests each point of theology as if it were required to meet the same tests of logic and consistency that prevail in the world of science.” “In other words, he expects your doctrines to make sense.” “He is unwilling to accept the idea that some things remain mysteries, comprehensible only to the mind of God. Ambiguity makes him saucy, and paradox causes open rebellion.” “An obnoxious child.”"

"It is a weak man who blames his failures on the strength of others."