The opinions that are held with passion are always those for which no good ground exists; indeed the passion is the measure of the holders lack of rational conviction. Opinions in politics and religion are almost always held passionately.

To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level.

Undoubtedly the desire for food has been and still is one of the main causes of political events.

Ideas and principles that do harm are as a rule, though not always, cloaks for evil passions.

The Christian view that all intercourse outside marriage is immoral was, as we see in the above passages from St. Paul, based upon the view that all sexual intercourse, even within marriage, is regrettable. A view of this sort, which goes against biological facts, can only be regarded by sane people as a morbid aberration. The fact that it is embedded in Christian ethics has made Christianity throughout its whole history a force tending towards mental disorders and unwholesome views of life.

There are two motives for reading a book; one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it.

Envy ... is one form of a vice, partly moral, partly intellectual, which consists in seeing things never in themselves but only in their relations.