“Hell was never God's intention. It is man's invention. It is a human-manufactured religious icon, no less idolatrous than deifying a statue.”

“in order to invent heaven and hell a man would need to know nothing except the human body”

“He knew as well as we in our own world do that the road to hell is paved with good intentions--but he also knew that, for human beings, good intentions are sometimes all there are. Angels may be safe from damnation, but human beings are less fortunate things, and for them hell is always close.”

“When you love, love as if the person is a god, not less than that. Never love a woman as a woman and never love a man as a man.”

“For the images of the gods are much easier to misuse for human purposes than the gods themselves. Images have no will and no desires. Statues stand for nothing but the goals of the rulers. … The word of a god is, in truth, only the word of the one who erected his statue.”

“After all, is not a real Hell better than a manufactured Heaven?”