There can be no merit in believing something which you can neither explain nor understand.

Savages have often been likened to children, and the comparison is not only correct but also highly instructive. Many naturalists consider that the early condition of the individual indicates that of the race,-that the best test of the affinities of a species are the stages through which it passes. So also it is in the case of man; the life of each individual is an epitome of the history of the race, and the gradual development of the child illustrates that of the species.

Many savage nations worship trees, and I really think my first feeling would be one of delight and interest rather than of surprise, if some day when I am alone in the woods one of the trees were to speak to me.

A day of worry is more exhausting than a week of work.

Our duty is to believe that for which we have sufficient evidence, and to suspend our judgment when we have not.

The important thing is not so much that every child should be taught, as that every child should be given the wish to learn.

False pleasures come from without and are imperfect: happiness is internal and our own.