The imaginary flowers of religion adorn man's chains. Man must throw off the flowers, and also the chains.

Religion consists in a set of things which the average man thinks he believes and wishes he was certain of.

The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness.

Religion is the opiate of the masses.

To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo.

This, you see, is something of the genius of great religion, that on the one hand, it gives man a sense of belonging and on the other hand, it gives him a sense of dependence on something higher. So he realizes that there is something beyond in which he lives and moves and even moves and gains his being. This is what great religion does for him.