I have no sympathy for those who, under any pressure of circumstances, sacrifice their heart's-love for legal prostitution.

It is not quite true that there are no good letters written in America: among my own circle of correspondents there, there are ladies and gentlemen whose letters would stand a comparison with any for frankness, grace, and epistolary beauty of every kind. But I am not aware of any medium between this excellence and the boarding-school insignificance which characterizes the rest.

My own feeling of concern arises from seeing how much moral injury and suffering is created by the superstitions of the Christian mythology.

Moral excellence has no regard to classes and professions.

Readers are plentiful; thinkers are rare.

The last thing it [government] ought to do is to ground its proceedings on the ignorance of the people, - to yield them that which they will hereafter despise the donors for granting them.

Any one must see at a glance that if men and women marry those whom they do not love, they must love those whom they do not marry.