A foul-mouthed oaf, a drunken laborer lying in a drain, a beaten wife with blackened eyes and torn clothes, cannot be made romantic to a child who sees how other children suffer from bad-tempered parents, from drunken fathers to termagant mothers.

To forgive is wisdom, to forget is genius.

The will is never free - it is always attached to an object, a purpose. It is simply the engine in the car - it can't steer

Where can one find a profounder desolation than in the poor child who has lost its mother?

A perfect God is the creation of a conceited man

God is a character, a real and consistent being, or He is nothing. If God did a miracle He would deny His own nature and the universe would simply blow up, vanish, become nothing.

Religion is organized to satisfy and guide the soul -- politics does the same thing for the body.