It Is Better To Be

There Are No Means Of Finding What Either One Person Or Many Can Do, But By Trying - And No Means By Which Anyone Else Can Discover For Them What It Is For Their Happiness To Do Or Leave Undone

The Principle Itself Of Dogmatic Religion, Dogmatic Morality, Dogmatic Philosophy, Is What Requires To Be Rooted Out; Not Any Particular Manifestation Of That Principle. The Very Corner-stone Of An Education Intended To Form Great Minds, Must Be The Recognition Of The Principle, That The Object Is To Call Forth The Greatest Possible Quantity Of Intellectual Power, And To Inspire The Intensest Love Of Truth.

A Person Whose Desires And Impulses Are His Own - Are The Expression Of His Own Nature, As It Has Been Developed And Modified By His Own Culture - Is Said To Have A Character. One Whose Desires And Impulses Are Not His Own, Has No Character, No More Than A Steam-engine Has Character.

If Religious Belief Be Indeed So Necessary To Mankind, As We Are Continually Assured That It Is, There Is Great Reason To Lament, That The Intellectual Grounds Of It Should Require To Be Backed By Moral Bribery Or Subornation Of The Understanding.

Lord, Enlighten Thou Our Enemies. Sharpen Their Wits, Give Acuteness To Their Perceptions, And Consecutiveness And Clearness To Their Reasoning Powers: We Are In Danger From Their Folly, Not From Their Wisdom; Their Weakness Is What Fills Us With Apprehension, Not Their Strength.