Fear paints pictures of ghosts and hangs them in the gallery of ignorance.

There are treasures in books that all the money in the world cannot buy, but the poorest laborer can have for nothing.

With soap, baptism is a good thing.

They say that when god was in Jerusalem he forgave his murderers, but now he will not forgive an honest man for differing with him on the subject of the Trinity. They say that God says to me, "Forgive your enemies." I say, "I do;" but he says, "I will damn mine." God should be consistent. If he wants me to forgive my enemies he should forgive his. I am asked to forgive enemies who can hurt me. God is only asked to forgive enemies who cannot hurt him. He certainly ought to be as generous as he asks us to be.

When a fact can be demonstrated, force is unnecessary; when it cannot be demonstrated, force is infamous.

The priests of one religion never credit the miracles of another religion. Is this because priests instinctively know priests?

If the account given in Genesis is really true, ought we not, after all, to thank this serpent? He was the first schoolmaster, the first advocate of learning, the first enemy of ignorance, the first to whisper in human ears the sacred word liberty, the creator of ambition, the author of modesty, of inquiry, of doubt, of investigation, of progress and of civilization.