7,899 books
—
49,787 voters
“Let the human mind loose. It must be loose. It will be loose. Superstition and dogmatism cannot confine it.
{Letter to his son and 6th US president, John Quincy Adams, November 13 1816}”
― The Letters of John and Abigail Adams
{Letter to his son and 6th US president, John Quincy Adams, November 13 1816}”
― The Letters of John and Abigail Adams
“One must state it plainly. Religion comes from the period of human prehistory where nobody—not even the mighty Democritus who concluded that all matter was made from atoms—had the smallest idea what was going on. It comes from the bawling and fearful infancy of our species, and is a babyish attempt to meet our inescapable demand for knowledge (as well as for comfort, reassurance and other infantile needs). Today the least educated of my children knows much more about the natural order than any of the founders of religion, and one would like to think—though the connection is not a fully demonstrable one—that this is why they seem so uninterested in sending fellow humans to hell.”
― God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
― God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
“Say what you will about the Ten Commandments, you must always come back to the pleasant fact that there are only ten of them.”
―
―
“Explanations exist; they have existed for all time; there is always a well-known solution to every human problem—neat, plausible, and wrong.”
― Prejudices: Second series
― Prejudices: Second series
Stephen’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Stephen’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
Polls voted on by Stephen
Lists liked by Stephen

















