Teach a child what is wise, that is morality. Teach him what is wise and beautiful, that is religion!

. . . I fail to find a trace [in Protestantism] of any desire to set reason free. The most that can be discovered is a proposal to change masters. From being a slave of the papacy, the intellect was to become the serf of the Bible.

The only question which any wise man can ask himself, and which any honest man will ask himself, is whether a doctrine is true or false.

There is assuredly no more effectual method of clearing up one's own mind on any subject than by talking it over, so to speak, with men of real power and grasp, who have considered it from a totally different point of view.

Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every conceived notion, follow humbly wherever and whatever abysses nature leads, or you will learn nothing.

If a man cannot see a church, it is preposterous to take his opinion about its altar-piece or painted window.

Friendship involves many things but, above all the power of going outside oneself and appreciating what is noble and loving in another.