[T]ruth is considered profane, and only illusion is sacred

The joys of theory are the sweetest intellectual pleasures of life

The present age ... prefers the sign to the thing signified, the copy to the original, fancy to reality, the appearance to the essence ... for in these days illusion only is sacred, truth profane.

[T]ruth is considered profane, and only illusion is sacred

In the consciousness of the infinite, the conscious subject has for his object the infinity of his own nature.

Christianity has in fact long vanished, not only from the reason but also from the life of mankind, and it is nothing more than a fixed idea.

My only wish isto transform friends of God into friends of man, believers into thinkers, devotees of prayer into devotees of work, candidates for the hereafter into students of the world, Christians who, by their own procession and admission, are half animal, half angel into persons, into whole persons.