"Fear prophets and those prepared to die for the truth," says Eco, "for as a rule they make many others die with them, often before them, at times instead of them."

Some of the better-known Fabians include atheist-turned Theosophist Annie Besant, the virulently anti-Christian dramatist George Bernard Shaw, the atheist novelist H.G. Wells, and Rupert Brooke, the Agnostic poet.

Cicero may have adopted only a public profession of belief in immortality. “On the Nature of the Gods” gives the arguments for and against, but like a politician he takes neither side.

Cumont's works on ancient Rome not only demonstrated his Rationalism, but corrected many false charges Christian apologists had made against the pagans.

"Since I am an atheist, and do not believe that either God or Satan, Heaven or Hell, exists, I can only suppose that when I die, there will only be an eternity of nothingness to follow."

"[Frazer] was not an Atheist. I would say perhaps that he held his judgment in suspense." That is the common definition of an Agnostic.

From 1522 he cohabited with Anna Reinhard, producing four children, with no discernable diminution of Zwingli's ecclesiastical effectiveness.