There is no virtue in penance and fasting which waste the body; they are only fanatical and monkish.

Ours is an age of criticism, to which everything must be subjected. The sacredness of religion, and the authority of legislation, are by many regarded as grounds for exemption from the examination by this tribunal, But, if they are exempted, and cannot lay claim to sincere respect, which reason accords only to that which has stood the test of a free and public examination.

It is not God's will merely that we should be happy, but that we should make ourselves happy

It is therefore correct to say that the senses do not err — not because they always judge rightly, but because they do not judge at all.

Nature, when left to universal laws, tends to produce regularity out of chaos.

Criticism alone can sever the root of materialism, fatalism, atheism, free-thinking, fanaticism, and superstition, which can be injurious universally; as well as of idealism and skepticism, which are dangerous chiefly to the Schools, and hardly allow of being handed on to the public.

The wish to talk to God is absurd. We cannot talk to one we cannot comprehend — and we cannot comprehend God; we can only believe in Him.