Saints cannot arise where there have been no warriors, nor philosophers where a prying beast does not remain hidden in the depths.

Prayer, among sane people, has never superseded practical efforts to secure the desired end.

To most people, I fancy, the stars are beautiful; but if you asked why, they would be at a loss to reply, until they remembered what they had heard about astronomy, and the great size and distance and possible habitation of those orbs. ... [We] persuade ourselves that the power of the starry heavens lies in the suggestion of astronomical facts.

... 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.

There is no greater stupidity or meanness than to take uniformity for an ideal.

It is easier to make a saint out of a libertine than out of a prig.

To attempt to be religious without practicing a specific religion is as possible as attempting to speak without a specific language.