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

Religious doctrines would do well to withdraw their pretension to be dealing with matters of fact. That pretension is not only the source of the conflicts of religion with science and the vain and bitter controversies of sects; it is also the cause of the impurity and incoherence of religion in the soul.

The mass of mankind is divided into two classes, the Sancho Panza's who have a sense for reality, but no ideals, and the Don Quixote's with a sense for ideals, but mad.

What religion a man shall have is a historical accident, quite as much as what language he shall speak.

If you prefer illusions to realities, it is only because all decent realities have eluded you and left you in the lurch; or else your contempt for the world is mere hypocrisy and funk.

Lovely promise and quick ruin are seen nowhere better than in Gothic architecture.

The passions grafted on wounded pride are the most inveterate; they are green and vigorous in old age.