It is characteristic of genius to be hopeful and aspiring.

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

The imagination, once awakened, must and will work, and ought to work

Authorship has never been with me a matter of choice. I have not done it for amusement, or for money, or for fame, or for any reason but because I could not help it.

If a test of civilization be sought, none can be so sure as the condition of that half of society over which the other half has power.

As the astronomer rejoices in new knowledge which compels him to give up the dignity of our globe as the centre, the pride, and even the final cause of the universe, so do those who have escaped from the Christian mythology enjoy their release from the superstition which fails to make them happy, fails to make them good, fails to make them wise, and has become as great an obstacle in the way of progress as the prior mythologies which it took the place of two thousand years ago.

The voice of a whole people goes up in the silent workings of an institution.