How pleasant it is for a father to sit at his child's board. It is like an aged man reclining under the shadow of an oak which he has planted.

It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.

One merit of poetry few persons will deny: it says more and in fewer words than prose.

Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.

Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.

Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.

What then do you call your soul? What idea have you of it? You cannot of yourselves, without revelation, admit the existence within you of anything but a power unknown to you of feeling and thinking.

The truths of religion are never so well understood as by those who have lost the power of reason.

Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth.

Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense.