Those who would legislate against the teaching of evolution should also legislate against gravity, electricity and the unreasonable velocity of light, and also should introduce a clause to prevent the use of the telescope, the microscope and the spectroscope or any other instrument of precision which may in the future be invented, constructed or used for the discovery of truth.

And to think of this great country in danger of being dominated by people ignorant enough to take a few ancient Babylonian legends as the canons of modern culture. Our scientific men are paying for their failure to speak out earlier. There is no use now talking evolution to these people. Their ears are stuffed with Genesis.

Justice, love, truth, peace and harmony, a serene unity with science and the laws of the universe.

Do not feed children on maudlin sentimentalism or dogmatic religion; give them nature.

Heredity is nothing but stored environment.

Most people's religion is what they want to believe, not what they do believe.

In the span of my own lifetime I observed such wondrous progress in plant evolution that I look forward optimistically to a healthy, happy world as soon as its children are taught the principles of simple and rational living.

Flowers always make people better, happier and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine to the soul.

The serenity produced by the contemplation and philosophy of nature is the only remedy for prejudice, superstition, and inordinate self-importance, teaching us that we are all a part of Nature herself, strengthening the bond of sympathy which should exist between ourselves and our brother man.

If you violate Nature's laws you are your own prosecuting attorney, judge, jury, and hangman.

Let us read the Bible without the ill-fitting colored spectacles of theology, just as we read other books, using our judgment and reason.

If we cannot meet our everyday surroundings with equanimity and pleasure and grow each day in some useful direction, then... life is on the road toward misfortune, misery and destruction.

If we had paid no more attention to our plants than we have to our children, we would now be living in a jungle of weed.

As a scientist, I cannot help feeling that all religions are on a tottering foundation ... I am an infidel today. I do not believe what had been served to me to believe. I am a doubter, a questioner, a skeptic. When it can be proved to me that there is immortality, that there is resurrection beyond the gates of death, then will I believe. Until then, no.

Although I went to college as a youth, I never considered it necessary to steep oneself in academic learning, in order to learn how to think. I welcome a fair and square, open and above-board fight on any subject, including this, but I despise a man who sneaks around under a cloak or cover of any society or clique to strike his blows.

The greatest happiness in the world is to make others happy.

Science ... has opened our eyes to the vastness of the universe and given us light, truth and freedom from fear where once was darkness, ignorance and superstition. There is no personal salvation, except through science.

Science is knowledge arranged and classified according to truth, facts, and the general laws of nature.

The word 'religion' has acquired a very bad name among those who really love truth, justice, charity. It also exhales the musty odor of sanctimony and falsehood.

Children are the greatest sufferers from outgrown theologies.