Mysticism is, in essence, little more than a certain intensity and depth of feeling in regard to what is believed about the universe.

This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the second chance were offered me.

[There has been] every kind of cruelty practiced upon all sorts of people in the name of religion.

Conquer the world by intelligence, and not merely by being slavishly subdued by the terror that comes from it.

The main things which seem to me important on their own account, and not merely as means to other things, are knowledge, art, instinctive happiness, and relations of friendship or affection.

[There are m]oral precepts that we consider really important, such as 'don't pick your nose' or 'don't eat peas with a knife'. There may, for ought I know, be admirable reasons for eating peas with a knife, but . . . early persuasion has made me completely incapable of appreciating them.

All the labor of all the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius are destined to extinction. So now, my friends, if that is true, and it is true, what is the point?