the inventor of the plow did more good than the maker of the first rosary - because, say what you will, plowing is better than praying.

If you have ever clothed another with woe, as with a garment of pain, you will never be quite as happy as though you had not done that thing.

No man of sense in the whole world believes in devils any more than he does in mermaids, vampires, gorgons, hydras, naiads, dryads, nymphs, fairies, the Fountain of Youth, [or] the Philosopher's Stone. . . .

Our hope of immortality does not come from any religions, but nearly all religions come from that hope.

Ignorance is the worst form of slavery. (Paraphrased)

Love is the magician, the enchanter, that changes worthless things to joy, and makes right royal kings and queens of common clay. It is the perfume of that wondrous flower, the heart, and without that sacred passion, that divine swoon, we are less than beasts; but with it, earth is heaven, and we are gods.

The only evidence, so far as I know, about another life is, first, that we have no evidence; and secondly, that we are rather sorry that we have not, and wish we had.