There can be no high civility without a deep morality

The true test of civilization is, not the census, nor the size of the cities, nor the crops, but the kind of man that the country turns out.

The true test of civilization is, not the census, nor the size of the cities, nor the crops, but the kind of man that the country ;turns out.

On my saying, What have I to do with the sacredness of traditions, if I live wholly from within? my friend suggested,--"But these impulses may be from below, not from above." I replied, "They do not seem to me to be such; but if I am the Devil's child, I will live then from the Devil." No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature. Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my constitution, the only wrong what is against it. A man is to carry himself in the presence of all opposition as if everything were titular and ephemeral but he. I am ashamed to think how easily we capitulate to badges and names, to large societies and dead institutions. Every decent and well-spoken individual affects and sways me more than is right. I ought to go upright and vital, and speak the rude truth in all ways.

The progress of religion is steadily to its identity with morals. Strength enters just as much as the moral element prevails.

As long as our civilization is essentially one of property, of fences, of exclusiveness, it will be mocked by delusions