The brute necessity of believing something so long as life lasts does not justify any belief in particular.

The more rational an institution is the less it suffers by making concessions to others.

Knowledge is not eating, and we cannot expect to devour and possess what we mean. Knowledge is recognition of something absent; it is a salutation, not an embrace.

Existence is a miracle, and, morally considered, a free gift from moment to moment.

Our occasional madness is less wonderful than our occasional sanity.

It is one thing to lack a heart and another to possess eyes and a just imagination.

Society itself is an accident to the spirit, and if society in any of its forms is to be justified morally it must be justified at the bar of the individual conscience.