Does the thoughtful man suppose that...the present experiment in civilization is the last world we will see?

Each religion, by the help of more or less myth, which it takes more or less seriously, proposes some method of fortifying the human soul and enabling it to make its peace with its destiny.

Nature drives with a loose rein and vitality of any sort can blunder through many a predicament in which reason would despair.

We crave support in vanity, as we do in religion, and never forgive contradictions in that sphere.

Skepticism is the chastity of the intellect, and it is shameful to surrender it too soon or to the first comer.

Those who speak most of progress measure it by quantity and not by quality.

By "essence" I understand a universal, of any degree of complexity and definition, which may be given immediately, whether to sense or to thought.... This object of pure sense or pure thought, with no belief superadded, an object inwardly complete and individual, but without external relations or physical status, is what I call an essence.