And what is the great thing that the stage does? It cultivates the imagination. And . . . the imagination constitutes the great difference between human beings. . . . The imagination is the mother of pity, the mother of generosity, the mother of every possible virtue. It is by the imagination that you are enabled to put yourself in the place of another.

The idea that there is a God who rewards and punishes, and who can reward, if he so wishes, the meanest and vilest of the human race, so that he will be eternally happy, and can punish the best of the human race, so that he will be eternally miserable, is subversive of all morality.

To give up your individuality is to annihilate yourself.

Love your friends and be just to your enemies.

You cannot be so poor that you cannot help somebody.

I found that the clergy did not understand their own book.

The closer I'm bound in love to you, the closer I am to free.