Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

Nothing can be meaner than the anxiety to live on, to live on anyhow and in any shape.

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.

Happiness is impossible, and even inconceivable, to a mind without scope and without pause, a mind driven by craving, pleasure, or fear. To be happy, you must be reasonable, or you must be tamed. You must have taken the measure of your powers, tasted the fruits of your passion, and learned your place in the world and what things in it can really serve you. To be happy, you must be wise.

Each religion necessarily contradicts every other religion, and probably contradicts itself. Religions, like languages, are necessary rivals. What religion a man shall have is a historical accident, quite as much as what language he shall speak.

To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.

People who feel themselves to be exiles in this world are mightily inclined to believe themselves citizens of another.