[I] wish that the land-tax went a little more according to situation than it does. 'Tis really ridiculous, how one has to pay five times as much as another, without any reason that ever I heard tell.

I certainly had no idea how little faith Christians have in their own faith till I saw how ill their courage and temper can stand any attack on it.

It is characteristic of genius to be hopeful and aspiring. It is characteristic of genius to break up the artificial arrangements of conventionalism, and to view mankind in true perspective, in their gradations of inherent rather than of adventitious worth. Genius is therefore essentially democratic, and has always been so.

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.

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

It is hard to tell which is worse; the wide diffusion of things that are not true, or the suppression of things that are true.

The progression of emancipation of any class usually, if not always, takes place through the efforts of individuals of that class.