How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"Honestly, Hinkley, of all the Christians I ever met you take the rottenest advantages. You can lick anybody in the class, and when I think of how you're going to bully the poor heathen when you get to be a missionary […] I could bawl!" (2.5.9)
Martin knows that his classmate Ira Hinkley is going to have a ton of success when it comes to converting people to Christianity. The guy is so huge and full of energy that he'll be perseverant in his missionary work.
Quote #2
Gottlieb, the placidly virulent hater of religious rites, had a religious-seeming custom. (13.2.1)
Even though Gottlieb hates organized religion, he has personal rituals that can often seem religious. One of them is kneeling at the side of his bed and letting his mind wander. But he doesn't think about God or miracles. He just marvels at the power of his own scientific mind.
Quote #3
Often he knelt by his bed and let his mind run free. It was very much like prayer, though certainly there was no formal invocation, no consciousness of a Supreme Being—other than Max Gottlieb." (13.2.2)
There's really not much to Max Gottlieb's "praying," other than an admiration for himself and his own pursuit of scientific truth. At the same time, this book still refers to his devotion to science as a form of religion.