To a census-taker, who asked him in 1872 if he was a Catholic, Hugo replied, "No. A Freethinker." Hugo predicted that Christianity would soon disappear, but men would still believe in God.

In “Of Human Bondage,” the author's surrogate, Philip Carey, "looked upon Christianity as a degrading bondage that must be cast away at any cost..." In "Summing Up," Maugham said, "I remain an agnostic."

Male and female are the distinctions of nature, good and bad the distinctions of heaven; but how a race of men came into the world so exalted above the rest... is worth enquiring into.