Religion may be defined thus: a belief in, and homage rendered to, existences unseen and causes unknown.

It is in vain that we would circumscribe the power of one half of our race, and that half by far the most important and influential.

If they exert it not for good, they will for evil; if they advance not knowledge, they will perpetuate ignorance.

If we bring not the good courage of minds covetous of truth, and truth only, prepared to hear all things, and decide upon all things, according to evidence, we should do more wisely to sit down contented in ignorance, than to bestir ourselves only to reap disappointment.

Do we exert our own liberties without injury to others – we exert them justly; do we exert them at the expense of others – unjustly. And, in thus doing, we step from the sure platform of liberty upon the uncertain threshold of tyranny.

Let us unite on the safe and sure ground of fact and experiment, and we can never err; yet better, we can never differ.

How are men to be secured in any rights without instruction; how to be secured in the equal exercise of those rights without equality of instruction? By instruction understand me to mean knowledge – just knowledge; not talent, not genius, not inventive mental powers.

The sciences have ever been the surest guides to virtue.

I have been swamped with tremendous response. I am expecting a huge crowd.

All that I say is, examine, inquire. Look into the nature of things. Search out the grounds of your opinions, the for and against. Know why you believe, understand what you believe, and possess a reason for the faith that is in you.

There is but one honest limit to the rights of a sentient being; it is where they touch the rights of another sentient being.

Pets, like their owners, tend to expand a little over the Christmas period.

Equality is the soul of liberty; there is, in fact, no liberty without it.

However novel it may appear, I shall venture the assertion, that, until women assume the place in society which good sense and good feeling alike assign to them, human improvement must advance but feebly.

Religion may be defined thus: a belief in, and homage rendered to, existences unseen and causes unknown.

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.