To the wise man, to the wise nation, the mistakes of the past are the torches of the present.

Secularism is a religion, a religion that is understood. It has no mysteries, no mumblings, no priests, no ceremonies, no falsehoods, no miracles, and no persecutions.

Religion can never reform mankind because religion is slavery.

Happiness is not a reward - it is a consequence. Suffering is not a punishment - it is a result.

Do you not know that every religion in the world has declared every other religion a fraud? Yes, we all know it. That is the time all religions tell the truth - each of the other.

Superstition is, always has been, and forever will be, the foe of progress, the enemy of education and the assassin of freedom.

The myth of hell represents all the meanness, all the revenge, all the selfishness, all the cruelty, all the hatred, all the infamy of which the heart of man is capable.

Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so.

Give to every human being every right that you claim for yourself.

The intellectual advancement of man depends on how often he can exchange an old superstition for a new truth.

There can be but little liberty on earth while men worship a tyrant in heaven.

The most amazing thing is that all my sorrows, all of my darkest moments, are becoming my gifts.

Do you know what I think Mayflowers are, Marilla? I think they must be the souls of the flowers that died last summer, and this is their heaven.

Everything takes place at a right time. It’s your anxiety to achieve everything before time or grab things more than you required, add misery to your life.

A kindergarten teacher is a woman who knows how to make little things count.

Everyone is built for running.

My son gave me the permission to accept my success.

On the floor, and hanging on to the bar, squatted an old man, immobile as an object. His years had reduced and polished him as water does a stone or the generations of men do a sentence.

I was like, 'What's Margiela?' back then.

Trauma never goes away completely, it changes perhaps, softens some with time, but never completely goes away.

It is the duty of the human understanding to understand that there are things which it cannot understand.