We must not forget that all great revolutions and reformations would look mean and meagre if examined in detail as they occurred at the time.

Make people happy and there will not be half the quarreling, or a tenth part of the wickedness there now is.

The United States is a warning rather than an example to the world.

I will work in my own way, according to the light that is in me.

Birds and beasts have in fact our own nature, flattened a semi-tone.

The existence of very pious feelings, in conjunction with intolerance, cruelty, and selfish policy, has never ceased to surprise and perplex those who have viewed it calmly from a distance. ... It is impossible to exaggerate the evil work theology has done in the world. What destruction of the beautiful monuments of past ages, what waste of life, what disturbance of domestic and social happiness, what perverted feelings, what blighted hearts, have always marked its baneful progress!

The eye of genius has always a plaintive expression, and its natural language is pathos.