New doctrines ever displease the old. They like to fancy that the world has been losing wisdom, instead of gaining it, since they were young.

A religious life is a struggle and not a hymn.

The language of religion can alone suit every situation and every mode of feeling.

Wit lies in recognizing the resemblance among things which differ and the difference between things which are alike.

nothing is so horrifying as the possibility of existing simply because we do not know how to die.

Every time a new nation, America or Russia for instance, advances toward civilization, the human race perfects itself; every time an inferior class emerges from enslavement and degradation, the human race again perfects itself.

Whatever efforts one may make, one must revert to the realization that religion is the real basis of morality; religion is the real and perceptible purpose within us, which alone, can turn aside our attention from things. ... The science of morality can no more teach human beings to be honest, in all the magnificence of this word, than geometry can teach one how to draw.