The true Christian is in all countries a pilgrim and a stranger.

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

To delight in war is a merit in the soldier, a dangerous quality in the captain, and a positive crime in the statesman.

It is a great advantage for a system of philosophy to be substantially true.

Beauty is a pledge of the possible conformity between the soul and nature, and consequently a ground of faith in the supremacy of the good.

Any attempt to speak without speaking any particular language is not more hopeless than the attempt to have a religion that shall be no religion in particular.... Every living and healthy religion has a marked idiosyncrasy. Its power consists in its special and surprising message and the bias which that revelation gives to life.

One of the peculiarities of recent speculation, especially in America, is that ideas are abandoned in virtue of a mere change of feeling, without any new evidence or new arguments. We do not nowadays refute our predecessors, we pleasantly bid them good-bye.