The liberty of the individual is a necessary postulate of human progress.

Jesus was the greatest religious genius that ever lived.

Religion is not a popular error; it is a great instinctive truth, sensed by the people, expressed by the people.

As a rule, all heroism is due to a lack of reflection, and thus it is necessary to maintain a mass of imbeciles. If they once understand themselves the ruling men will be lost.

It is evident, indeed, that such a doctrine, taken by itself in a literal manner, had no future. The world, in continuing to exist, caused it to crumble. One generation of man at the most was the limit of its endurance. The faith of the first Christian generation is intelligible, but the faith of the second generation is no longer so. After the death of John, or of the last survivor, whoever he might be, of the group which had seen the master, the word of Jesus was convicted of falsehood.

To have common glories in the past, a common will in the present; to have done great things together, to will to do the like again, — such are the essential conditions for the making of a people.

In morals, truth is but little prized when it is a mere sentiment, and only attains its full value when realized in the world as fact.