Voltaire argued that if God did not exist Man would be obliged to invent him, and was reviled for the remark.

"S'il n'existait pas Dieu il faudrait l'inventer." (If God did not exist he would have to be invented.)

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.

I reverse the phrase of Voltaire, and say that if God really existed, it would be necessary to abolish him.

Si Dieu n'existait pas, il faudrait l'inventer.

"Há uma categoria de pessoas que, se não creem, devem pelo menos fazer de conta que sim. São todos os atormentadores, os opressores, os exploradores da humanidade: padres, monarcas, homens de Estado, homens de guerra, financistas públicos e privados, funcionários de todos os tipos, soldados, policiais, carcereiros e carrascos, capitalistas, aproveitadores, empresários e proprietários, advogados, economistas, políticos de todas as cores, até o último vendedor de especiarias, todos repetirão em uníssono essas palavras de Voltaire: "Se Deus não existisse seria preciso inventá-lo"."

A jealous lover of human liberty, and deeming it the absolute condition of all that we admire and respect in humanity, I reverse the phrase of Voltaire, and say that, if God really existed, it would be necessary to abolish him.

Amoroso e ciumento da liberdade humana e considerando-a como a condição absoluta de tudo o que adoramos e respeitamos na humanidade, inverto a frase de Voltaire e digo que, se Deus existisse, seria preciso aboli-lo.

If God really existed, it would be necessary to abolish Him.

"If God did not exist, he would have to be invented." But all nature cries aloud that he does exist: that there is a supreme intelligence, an immense power, an admirable order, and everything teaches us our own dependence on it.

If God did not exist, He would have to be invented. But all nature cries aloud that he does exist: that there is a supreme intelligence, an immense power, an admirable order, and everything teaches us our own dependence on it.

Voltaire said about God that ‘there is no God, but don’t tell that to my servant, lest he murder me at night’. Hammurabi would have said the same about his principle of hierarchy, and Thomas Jefferson about human rights. Homo sapiens has no natural rights, just as spiders, hyenas and chimpanzees have no natural rights. But don’t tell that to our servants, lest they murder us at night.

Man must be so weighed as though there were a God within him.

[T]his same Man-of-Letters Hero must be regarded as our most important modern person. He, such as he may be, is the soul of all.