Read, think well of mankind, go to our libraries and rejoice.

There have been only 268 of the past 3,421 years free of war.

Does history warrant the conclusion that religion is necessary to morality - that a natural ethic is too weak to withstand the savagery that lurks under civilization and emerges in our dreams, crimes and wars? ... There is no significant example in history, before our time, of a society successfully maintaining moral life without the aid of religion.

Drunkenness was in good repute in England till "Bloody Mary" frowned upon it; it remained popular in Germany. The French drank more stably, not being quite so cold.

No man who is in a hurry is quite civilized.

Time sanctifies everything; even the most arrant theft in the hands of the robber's grandchildren becomes sacred and inviolable property.

Sixty years ago I knew everything. Now I know nothing. Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.