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.

If the Bible and my brain are both the work of the same infinite God, whose fault is it that the book and my brain do not agree?

The good part of Christmas is not always Christian -- it is generally Pagan; that is to say, human, natural.

The old doctrine that God wanted man to do something for him, and that he kept a watchful eye upon all the children of men; that he rewarded the virtuous and punished the wicked, is gradually fading from the mind. We know that some of the worst men have what the world calls success. We know that some of the best men lie upon the straw of failure. We know that honesty goes hungry, while larceny sits at the banquet. We know that the vicious have every physical comfort, while the virtuous are often clad in rags.

Religion has not civilized man, man has civilized religion.

A good deed is the best prayer.

Let every man teach his son, teach his daughter, that labor is honorable.