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

Whether moral and social phenomena are really exceptions to the general certainty and uniformity of the course of nature; and how far the methods, by which so many of the laws of the physical world have been numbered among truths irrevocably acquired and universally assented to, can be made instrumental to the gradual formation of a similar body of received doctrine in moral and political science.

The majority, being satisfied with the ways of mankind as they now are (for it is they who make them what they are), cannot comprehend why those ways should not be good enough for everybody; and what is more, spontaneity forms no part of the ideal of the majority of moral and social reformers, but is rather looked on with jealousy, as a troublesome and perhaps rebellious obstruction to the general acceptance of what these reformers, in their own judgment, think would be best for mankind.

So natural to mankind is intolerance ... that religious freedom has hardly anywhere been practically realized.

The great creative individual . . . is capable of more wisdom and virtue than collective man ever can be.

Any participation, even in the smallest public function, is useful.

Men do not want solely the obedience of women, they want their sentiments.