... even if Lucretius was wrong, and the soul is immortal, it is nevertheless steadily changing its interests and its possessions.Our lives are mortal if our soul is not; and the sentiment which reconciled Lucretius to death is as much needed if we are to face many deaths, as if we are to face only one.

We should have to abandon our vested illusions, our irrational religions and patriotisms.

The idea of Christ is much older than Christianity.

The Difficult is that which can be done immediately; the Impossible that which takes a little longer.

Friendship is almost always the union of a part of one mind with the part of another; people are friends in spots.

Eternal vigilance is the price of knowledge.

Nature is like a beautiful woman that may be as delightfully and as truly known at a certain distance as upon a closer view; as to knowing her through and through; that is nonsense in both cases, and might not reward our pains.