“All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.”
Thomas Paine
“It’s a pontifex, a bridge to the skies, in fact the Pope himself is called Pontifex Maximus”
Father Mark Montebello
“I remember in Gozo villagers used to say one should have three altars: the Church, the word of God and the matrimonial bed. That showed there was no separation between the physical and the spiritual”
“This Greek idea of dualism is the problem deep down, this thing of having the spiritual on one side and the profane on the other. We are still grappling with this. Spirituality is a plus, sexuality a minus”
“Concentration of power in a political machine is bad; and an Established Church is only a political machine; it was invented for that; it is nursed, cradled, preserved for that; it is an enemy to human liberty, and does no good which it could not bet”
Mark Twain
“We owe to the Middle Ages the two worst inventions of humanity - romantic love and gunpowder.”
Andre Maurois
“The very greatest things - great thoughts, discoveries, inventions - have usually been nurtured in hardship, often pondered over in sorrow, and at length established with difficulty.”
Samuel Smiles
