One man in the right will finally get to be a majority.

The intellectual advancement of man depends on how often he can exchange an old superstition for a new truth.

It is labor that has made the world a fit habitation for the human race.

Let us put theology out of religion. Theology has always sent the worst to heaven, the best to hell.

Music expresses feeling and thought, without language; it was below and before speech, and it is above and beyond all words.

I do not believe that the tendency is to make men and women brave and glorious when you tell them that there are certain ideas upon certain subjects that they must never express; that they must go through life with a pretence as a shield; that their neighbors will think much more of them if they will only keep still; and that above all is a God who despises one who honestly expresses what he believes.

It is like most other ancient books - a mingling of falsehood and truth, of philosophy and folly - all written by men, and most of the men only partially civilized. Some of its laws are good - some infinitely barbarous. None of the miracles related were performed. . . . Take out the absurdities, the miracles, all that pertains to the supernatural - all the cruel and barbaric laws - and to the remainder I have no objection. Neither would I have for it any great admiration.