A religion so cheerless, a philosophy so sorrowful, could never have succeeded with the masses of mankind if presented only as a system of metaphysics. Buddhism owed its success to its catholic spirit and its beautiful morality.

Men prefer to believe that they are degenerated angels, rather than elevated apes.

A religion so cheerless, a philosophy so sorrowful, could never have succeeded with the masses of mankind if presented only as a system of metaphysics. Buddhism owed its success to its catholic spirit and its beautiful morality.

To cultivate the intellect is therefore a religious duty; and when this truth is fairly recognized by men, the religion which teaches that the intellect should be distrusted and that it should be subservient to faith, will inevitably fall.

Artistic genius is an expansion of monkey imitativeness.

Our enlightened posterity will look back upon us who eat oxen and sheep, just as we look upon cannibals.

Doubt is the offspring of knowledge: the savage never doubts at all.