My fundamental axiom of speculative philosophy is that materialism and spiritualism are opposite poles of the same absurdity-the absurdity of imagining that we know anything about either spirit or matter.

The dogma of the infallibility of the Bible is no more self-evident than is that of the infallibility of the popes.

The science, the art, the jurisprudence, the chief political and social theories, of the modern world have grown out of Greece and Rome-not by favour of, but in the teeth of, the fundamental teachings of early Christianity, to which science, art, and any serious occupation with the things of this world were alike despicable.

Science is nothing, but trained and organized common sense.

Matter and force are the two names of the one artist who fashions the living as well as the lifeless.

The Bible account of the creation of Eve is a preposterous fable.

Some experience of popular lecturing had convinced me that the necessity of making things plain to uninstructed people, was one of the very best means of clearing up the obscure corners in one's own mind.