Each undervalues that part of the materials of thought with which he is not familiar.

It is given to no human being to stereotype a set of truths, and walk safely by their guidance with his mind's eye closed.

The feeling of a direct responsibility of the individual to God is almost wholly a creation of Protestantism.

A profound conviction raises a man above the feeling of ridicule.

Christian morality (so called) has all the characters of a reaction.... In its horror of sensuality, it made an idol of asceticism, which has been gradually compromised away into one of legality. It holds out the hope of heaven and the threat of hell, as the appointed and appropriate motives to a virtuous life - in this falling far below the best of the ancients, and doing what lies in it to give to human morality an essentially selfish character.... It is essentially a doctrine of passive obedience; it inculcates submission to all authorities found established.

When a thing is bought not for its use but for its costliness, cheapness is no recommendation. As Sismondi remarks, the consequence of cheapening articles of vanity, is not that less is expended on such things, but that the buyers substitute for the cheapened article some other which is more costly, or a more elaborate quality of the same thing; and as the inferior quality answered the purpose of vanity equally well when it was equally expensive, a tax on the article is really paid by nobody: it is a creation of public revenue by which nobody loses.

A party of order or stability, and a party of progress or reform, are both necessary elements of a healthy state of political life.