If a fervent desire to help Man, instead of wasting time in prayer to "God," is pessimism, I am a pessimist.
If to think, to investigate, to express one's thoughts courageously in the face of centuries old dogma is pessimism, then I must confess I am a pessimist.
If to expose sham, hypocrisy and fraud; if to open the mind and free it from fear; if to stimulate the intellect, and work for the Here instead of the "Hereafter"—if all these are classified as pessimism, then truly may I be called an arch pessimist.
"The Tyranny of God" was written to express the truth as I see it—to portray life, not as we would like to have it, but as it actually is.
Millions are still like frightened children, afraid of their own shadows. Fear of the truth is the greatest deterrent to its acceptance.
Joseph Lewis
April 14, 1922