All in all, in life and history, we have found so many good men and women that we have quite lost faith in the wickedness of mankind.

Rome died in giving birth to the Church; the Church matured by inheriting and accepting the responsibilities of Rome.

Life's final tragedy is unwilling continuance—to outlive one's self and be forbidden to die.

No nation is ever defeated in its textbooks.

Men being by nature unequal in intelligence and scruple, democracy must at best be relative.

Nothing is lost in history: sooner or later every creative idea finds opportunity and development, and adds its color to the flame of life.

All cultures are eclectic in their youth, as education begins with imitation; but when the soul or nation comes of age it stamps its character, if it has any, upon all its works and words.

Next to bread and woman, in the hierarchy of desire, comes eternal salvation; when the stomach is satisfied, and lust is spent, man spares a little time for God.

The older the civilization, the longer the lawsuits.

A philosopher is a dead poet and a dying theologian.

Only lunatics can be completely original.

Institutions and beliefs are the offspring of human needs, and understanding must be in terms of these necessities.

Every romantic becomes a pessimist when reality impinges upon romance.

Epicurus won the Greeks, Zeno won the aristocracy of Rome; and to the end of pagan history the Stoics ruled the Epicureans, as they always will.

Men in their migrations carry along their gods.

The most important weapon for an army is food, and the skill of a commander lies as much in finding supplies as in organizing victory.

Christian astronomers in the thirteenth century pictured the planets as revolving about the earth... the center and summit of the universe was that same man whom the theologians described as a miserable worm tainted with sin and mostly doomed to hell.

Since the organization of a religious group presumes a common and stable creed, every religion sooner or later comes into opposition with that fluent and changeful current of secular thought that we confidently call the progress of knowledge.

...for some centuries yet he will continue to enjoy the lifeless immortality of those writers whom all men praise and no one reads.