“I see no good reasons why the views given in this volume should shock the religious views of anyone.”

Attention, if sudden and close, graduates into surprise; and this into astonishment; and this into stupefied amazement.

Besides love and sympathy, animals exhibit other qualities connected with the social instincts which in us would be called moral.

In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.

We can allow satellites, planets, suns, universe, nay whole systems of universe, to be governed by laws, but the smallest insect, we wish to be created at once by special act.

For the shield may be as important for victory, as the sword or spear.

Thus we have given to man a pedigree of prodigious length, but not, it may be said, of noble quality.

The normal food of man is vegetable.

Some call it evolution, And others call it God.

Not one change of species into another is on record, we cannot prove that a single species has been changed.

If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.

I never gave up Christianity until I was forty years of age.

The willing horse is always overworked.

We are optimists, until we are not.

False facts are highly injurious to the progress of science.

I have at least, as I hope, done good service in aiding to overthrow the dogma of separate creations.

I long to set foot where no man has trod before.

I had given up my seat before, but this day, I was especially tired. Tired from my work as a seamstress, and tired from the ache in my heart.

Emotion can be the enemy, if you give into your emotion, you lose yourself. You must be at one with your emotion, because the body always follows the mind.

When we blather about trivial things, we ourselves become trivial, for our attention gets taken up with trivialities. You become what you give your attention to.

I’ve given myself away, the whole of me, every part.

Dress gives one the outward sign from which people in general can, and often do, judge upon the inward state of mind and feelings.

There can be no greater gift than that of giving one’s time and energy to help others without expecting anything in return.

Goal of government should be to maximize the happiness of the people. Giving each person money allows them to decide what meets their needs, rather than the blunt tool of legislation, which creates self-serving special interests.

Destiny is a name often given in retrospect to choices that had dramatic consequences.