There are in every man, always, two simultaneous allegiances, one to God, the other to Satan. Invocation of God, or Spirituality, is a desire to climb higher; that of Satan, or animality, is delight in descent.

You are sitting and smoking; you believe that you are sitting in your pipe, and that your pipe is smoking you; you are exhaling yourself in bluish clouds. You feel just fine in this position, and only one thing gives you worry or concern: how will you ever be able to get out of your pipe?

There can be no progress-real, moral prgress-except in the individual and by the individual himself.

Even if it were proven that God didn't exist, Religion would still be Saintly and Divine.

In the domain of painting and statuary, the present-day credo of the worldly wise, especially in France, is this: ... I believe that art is, and can only be, the exact reproduction of nature... An avenging God has heard the prayers of this multitude; Daguerre was his messiah.

Blessed art Thou, Lord, who giveth suffering As a divine remedy for our impurities.

Common sense tells us that the things of the earth exist only a little, and that true reality is only in dreams.