“My own mind is my own church” (654).
“It is revelation to the first person only, and hearsay to every other” (655).
“I have a right not to believe it” (655).
“The deification of heroes changed into the canonization of saints” (656).
“Man cannot make principles; he can only discover them” (657).
“trigonometry, or the properties of a triangle …. is the soul of science” (657).
“The Almighty lecturer, by displaying the principles of science in the structure of the universe, has invited man to study and to imitation” (659).
“But when he contemplates the subject in this light, he sees an additional motive for saying, that nothing was made in vain; for in vain would be this power of vision if it taught man nothing” (659).