The world is full of religion, and full of misery and crime.

Instead of establishing facts, we have to overthrow errors; instead of ascertaining what is, we have to chase from our imaginations what is not.

the mode of delivering a truth makes, for the most part, as much impression on the mind of the listener as the truth itself.

Equality is the soul of liberty; there is, in fact, no liberty without it.

We have ... dreamed so much and observed so little, that our imaginations have grown larger than the world we live in, and our judgments have dwindled down to a point.

I am neither Jew nor Gentile, Mohammedan nor Theist; I am but a member of the human family, and would accept of truth by whomsoever offered -- that truth which we can all find, if we will but seek in things, not in words; in nature, not in human imagination; in our own hearts, not in temples made with hands.

To give liberty to a slave before he understands its value is, perhaps, rather to impose a penalty than to bestow a blessing.