The practical effect of a belief is the real test of its soundness. Where we find a heroic life appearing as the uniform fruit of a particular mode of opinion, it is childish to argue in the face of fact that the result ought to have been different.

The best that we can do for one another is to exchange our thoughts freely; and that, after all, is about all.

I have long been convinced that the Christian Eucharist is but a continuation of the Eleusinian mysteries. St Paul, in using the word teleiois, almost confirms this.

Morality, when vigorously alive, sees farther than intellect, and provides unconsciously for intellectual difficulties.

Crime is not punished as an offense against God, but as prejudicial to society.

You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.

To deny the freedom of the will is to make morality impossible.