“I have long had a theory that the popularity of Christianity has always depended on its appeal to the sadism of its adherents. The exceptional should be crucified, saith Society; and somehow everyone suspects (in spite of all arguments to the contrary) that if there is a God, he may be exceptional in some way. So the figure of Christ crucified becomes the figure of the dangerous exceptional alien—suitably defeated. 'Only a suffering God can help', said Bonhoeffer, licking his lips.”

"The Philosopher"
Winesburg, Ohio (1919)

Source: Man's Search for Meaning

Preface, Paul
1910s, Androcles and the Lion (1913)

Angelus (24 September 1978) http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_i/angelus/documents/hf_jp-i_ang_24091978_en.html <br class="br">Context: People sometimes say: &quot;we are in a society that is all rotten, all dishonest.&quot; That is not true. There are still so many good people, so many honest people. Rather, what can be done to improve society? I would say: let each of us try to be good and to infect others with a goodness imbued with the meekness and love taught by Christ. Christ&#x27;s golden rule was: &quot;do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself. Do to others what you want done to yourself.&quot; &#x27;And he always gave. Put on the cross, not only did he forgive those who crucified him, but he excused them. He said: &quot;Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.&quot; This is Christianity, these are sentiments which, if put into practice would help society so much.

Anarchism: Its Philosophy and Ideal (1896)
Context: Far be it from us not to recognize the importance of the second factor, moral teaching — especially that which is unconsciously transmitted in society and results from the whole of the ideas and comments emitted by each of us on facts and events of every-day life. But this force can only act on society under one condition, that of not being crossed by a mass of contradictory immoral teachings resulting from the practice of institutions.
In that case its influence is nil or baneful. Take Christian morality: what other teaching could have had more hold on minds than that spoken in the name of a crucified God, and could have acted with all its mystical force, all its poetry of martyrdom, its grandeur in forgiving executioners? And yet the institution was more powerful than the religion: soon Christianity — a revolt against imperial Rome — was conquered by that same Rome; it accepted its maxims, customs, and language. The Christian church accepted the Roman law as its own, and as such — allied to the State — it became in history the most furious enemy of all semi-communist institutions, to which Christianity appealed at Its origin.

"Assists" lecture, #10 in the confidential Class VIII series of lectures (3 October 1968).

Source: The Art of Scientific Investigation (1950), p. 65.

Draft of a reply to an invitation to join the Victoria Institute (1875), in Ch. 12 : Cambridge 1871 To 1879, p. 404
The Life of James Clerk Maxwell (1882)