Matters of religion should never be matters of controversy. We neither argue with a lover about his taste, nor condemn him, if we are just, for knowing so human a passion.

The profoundest affinities are those most readily felt, and though a thousand later considerations may overlay and override them, they remain a background and standard for all happiness. If we trace them out we succeed.

Saints cannot arise where there have been no warriors, nor philosophers where a prying beast does not remain hidden in the depths.

It is easier to make a saint out of a libertine than out of a prig.

Trust the man who hesitates in his speech and is quick and steady in action, but beware of long arguments and long beards.

That life is worth living is the most necessary of assumptions, and were it not assumed, the most impossible of conclusions.

I believe in general in a dualism between facts and the ideas of those facts in human heads.