One's friends are that part of the human race with which one can be human.

Religions are the great fairy tales of conscience.

Art is a delayed echo.

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.

In unphilosophical minds any rare or unexpected thing excites wonder, while in philosophical minds the familiar excites wonder also.

Manhood and sagacity ripen of themselves; it suffices not to repress or distort them.

The strongest feelings assigned to the conscience are not moral feelings at all; they express merely physical antipathies.