The ne plus ultra of wickedness ... is embodied in what is commonly presented to mankind as the creed of Christianity.

Among the works of man, which human life is rightly employed in perfecting, the first in importance surely is man himself.

Next to selfishness the principal cause which makes life unsatisfactory is want of mental cultivation.

The great majority of those who speak of perfectibility as a dream, do so because they feel that it is one which would afford them no pleasure if it were realized.

Art is the employent of the powers of nature for an end.

It would not be easy even for an unbeliever, to find a better translation of the rule of virtue from the abstract into the concrete, than to endeavor so to live that Christ would approve our life.

Ask yourself whether you are happy and you cease to be so. The only chance is to treat not happiness, but some end external to it, as the purpose of life.