“There is but one honest limit to the rights of a sentient being; it is where they touch the rights of another sentient being.”
“These will vary in every human being; but knowledge is the same for every mind, and every mind may and ought to be trained to receive it.”
“We have seen that no religion stands on the basis of things known; none bounds its horizon within the field of human observation; and, therefore, as it can never present us with indisputable facts, so must it ever be at once a source of error and contention.”
“He who lives in the single exercise of his mental faculties, however usefully or curiously directed, is equally an imperfect animal with the man who knows only the exercise of muscles.”
“We hear of the wealth of nations, of the powers of production, of the demand and supply of markets, and we forget that these words mean no more, if they mean any thing, then the happiness, and the labor, and the necessities of men.”
“Our religious belief usurps the place of our sensations, our imaginations of our judgment. We no longer look to actions, trace their consequences, and then deduce the rule; we first make the rule, and then, right or wrong, force the action to square with it.”
“Let us unite on the safe and sure ground of fact and experiment, and we can never err; yet better, we can never differ.”
“Speak of change, and the world is in alarm. And yet where do we not see change?”
“And when did mere preaching do any good? Put something in the place of these things. Fill the vacuum of the mind.”
“Know why you believe, understand what you believe, and possess a reason for the faith that is in you.”