A soul occupied with great ideas performs small duties.

The clergy complain of the enormous spread of bold books, from the infidel tract to the latest handling of the miracle question.

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

I would not exchange my freedom from old superstition, if I were to be burned at the stake next month, for all the peace and quiet of orthodoxy, if I must take the orthodoxy with peace and quiet.

I loved, as I still love, the most monotonous life possible.

Everything but truth becomes loathed in a sick-room ... Let the nurse avow that the medicine is nauseous. Let the physician declare that the treatment will be painful. Let sister, or brother, or friend, tell me that I must never look to be well. When the time approaches that I am to die, let me be told that I am to die, and when.

All people interested in their work are liable to overrate their vocation. There may be makers of dolls' eyes who wonder how society would go on without them.