“The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts
“We must, however, acknowledge, as it seems to me, that man with all his noble qualities... still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.
“If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once a week.
“If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin
“At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate, and replace the savage races throughout the world
“The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference
“A moral being is one who is capable of reflecting on his past actions and their motives - of approving of some and disapproving of others
“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change
“It is so easy to hide our ignorance under such expressions as the 'plan of creation,' 'unity of design,' etc..
“To kill an error is as good a service as, and sometimes even better than, the establishing of a new truth or fact
“In the survival of favoured individuals and races, during the constantly-recurring struggle for existence, we see a powerful and ever-acting form of selection
“What a book a devil's chaplain might write on the clumsy, wasteful, blundering, low, and horribly cruel work of nature!