There have certainly been many periods in history when virtue was more rare than under the Caesars; but there has probably never been a period when vice was more extravagant or uncontrolled.
There is no possible line of conduct which has at some time and place been condemned, and which has not at some other time and place been enjoined as a duty.
Physical science has taught us to associate Deity with the normal rather than with the abnormal.
Whence has come thy lasting power.
The doctrine of a material hell in its effect was to chill and deaden the sympathies, predispose men to inflict suffering, and to retard the march of civilization.
Spain and southern Italy, in which Catholicism has most deeply implanted its roots, are even now, probably beyond all other countries in Europe, those in which inhumanity to animals is most wanton and unrebuked.
The animal world being altogether external to the scheme of redemption, was regarded as beyond the range of duty, and the belief that we have any kind of obligation to its members has never been inculcated – has never, I believe, been even admitted – by Catholic theologians.
One of the most important lessons that experience teaches is that, on the whole, success depends more upon character than upon either intellect or fortune.
There are some poisons which, before they kill men, allay pain and diffuse a soothing sensation through the frame. We may recognize the hour of enjoyment they procure, but we must not separate it from the price at which it was purchased.
Contraction of theological influence has at once been the best measure, and the essential condition of intellectual advance.
Pleasures that are in themselves innocent lose their power of pleasing if they become the sole or main object of pursuit.
The unweary, unostentatious, and inglorious crusade of England against slavery may probably be regarded as among the three or four perfectly virtuous pages comprised in the history of nations.
The morals of men are more governed by their pursuits than by their opinions. A type of virtue is first formed by circumstances, and men afterwards make it the model upon which their theories are framed.
There is no wild beast so ferocious as Christians who differ concerning their faith.
Making every allowance for the errors of the most extreme fallibility, the history of Catholicism would on this hypothesis represent an amount of imposture probably unequaled in the annals of the human race.
Terror is everywhere the beginning of religion.
Almost all Europe, for many centuries, was inundated with blood, which was shed at the direct instigation or with the full approval of the ecclesiastical authorities.
Fierce invectives against women form a conspicuous and grotesque portion of the writings of the Church fathers.
All history shows that, in exact proportion as nations advance in civilisation, the accounts of miracles taking place among them become rarer and rarer, until at last they entirely cease.
Whenever the clergy were at the elbow of the civil arm, no matter whether they were Catholic or Protestant, persecution was the result.