With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things; but for good people to do evil things - that takes religion.

Steven Weinberg - Theoretical Physicist 

Aeneid - Virgil (29 BC - 19 BC)

The gates of hell are open night and day; 

Smooth the descent, and easy is the way:

but to return, and view the cheerful skies,

in this the task and mighty labor lies.

- Virgil (70 BC - 19 BC)
Aeneid; Book VI, Lines 192-195, 29 BC - 19 BC

Areopagitica - John Milton (1644)

“Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.”

- John Milton
Areopagitica; A speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England

A pious man explained to his followers...

“It is evil to take lives and noble to save them.

Each day I pledge to save a hundred lives. I drop my net in the lake and scoop out a hundred fishes.

I place the fishes on the bank, where they flop and twirl.

“Don’t be scared,” I tell those fishes. “I am saving you from drowning.”

Soon enough, the fishes grow calm and lie still.

Yet, sad to say, I am always too late. The fishes expire.

And because it is evil to waste anything, I take those dead fishes to market and I sell them for a good price.

With the money I receive, I buy more nets so I can save more fishes.”

–Amy Tan, Saving Fish from Drowning

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values – Robert M. Pirsig (1974)

“You are never dedicated to something you have complete confidence in. No one is fanatically shouting that the sun is going to rise tomorrow. They know it is going to rise tomorrow. When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths or any other kinds of dogmas or goals, it's always because these dogmas or goals are in doubt.”

– Robert M. Pirsig (1928 - 2017)