“There is too much tendency to attribute to God the evils that man does of his own free will. I must concede you the Devil. God doesn't really need to punish us, Miss Barton. We're so busy punishing ourselves.”

“God is not needed to create guilt or to punish. Our fellow men suffice, aided by ourselves.”

“Man provides his own goods and his own evils, neither God nor the Devil has anything to do with it.”

“God preordained, for his own glory and the display of His attributes of mercy and justice, a part of the human race, without any merit of their own, to eternal salvation, and another part, in just punishment of their sin, to eternal damnation.”

“In order to attain perfect union, we must divest ourselves of God…The common belief about God, that He is a great Taskmaster, whose function is to reward or punish, is cast out by perfect love; and in this sense the spiritual man does divest himself of God as conceived of by most people.”

“God will not punish, or put the blame upon the innocent, nor allow the criminals to go free without paying the price of their evil deeds.”

“I am the punishment of God. If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you.”

“God will punish the wicked. And before He does, we will.”

“I have to come to realize that God does not want to punish us, but rather, to fulfill our lives. God created us, loves us and wants to help us to realize our potential so that we can be useful to others.”

“But secondly you say 'society must exact vengeance, and society must punish'. Wrong on both counts. Vengeance comes from the individual and punishment from God.”