When I was a child . . . Only virtue was prized, virtue at the expense of intellect, health, happiness, and every mundane good.

Teachers are more than any other group the guardians of civilization.

My own view on religion is that of Lucretius. I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race. I cannot, however, deny that it has made some contributions to civilisation. It helped in early days to fix the calendar, and it caused Egyptian priests to chronicle eclipses with such care that in time they became able to predict them. These two services I am prepared to acknowledge, but I do not know of any others.

When all experts agree, you need to watch out.

What makes a free thinker is not his beliefs, but the way in which he holds them. If he holds them because his elders told him they were true when he was young, or if he holds them because if he did not he would be unhappy, his thought is not free; but if he holds them because, after careful thought, he finds a balance in their favor, then his thought is free, however odd his conclusions may seem.

It is clear that thought is not free if the profession of certain opinions makes it impossible to earn a living.

Really high-minded people are indifferent to happiness, especially other people's.