The qualities most needed are charity and tolerance, not some form of fanatical faith such as is offered to us by the various rampant isms

Right conduct can never, except by some rare accident, be promoted by ignorance or hindered by knowledge.

The first effect of emancipation from the Church was not to make men think rationally, but to open their minds to every sort of antique nonsense

One of the most powerful of all our passions is the desire to be admired and respected.

Through the greatness of the universe, which philosophy contemplates, the mind also is rendered great, and becomes capable of that union with the universe which constitutes its highest good.

What men really want is not knowledge but certainty.

But if thought is to become the possession of many, not the privilege of the few, we must have done with fear. It is fear that holds men back - fear lest their cherished beliefs should prove delusions, fear lest the institutions by which they live should prove harmful, fear lest they themselves should prove less worthy of respect than they have supposed themselves to be.