The period of Catholic ascendancy was on the whole one of the most deplorable in the history of the human mind. . . . The spirit that shrinks from enquiry as sinful and deems a state of doubt a state… — William Edward Hartpole Lecky Copy Share Image
Faith always presented to the mind the idea of an abnormal intellectual condition, of the subversion or suspension of the critical faculties. It sometimes… — William Edward Hartpole Lecky Copy Share
There are times in the lives of most of us, when we would have given all the world to be as we were but… — William Edward Hartpole Lecky Copy Share
[Middleton] contended that the religious leaders of the fourth century had admitted, eulogised, and habitually acted upon principles that were diametrically opposed, not simply… — William Edward Hartpole Lecky Copy Share
The moral duty to be expected in different ages is not a unity of standard, or of acts, but a unity of tendency ...… — William Edward Hartpole Lecky Copy Share
The unweary, unostentatious, and inglorious crusade of England against slavery may probably be regarded as among the three or four perfectly virtuous pages comprised… — William Edward Hartpole Lecky Copy Share
There is no possible line of conduct which has at some time and place been condemned, and which has not at some other time… — William Edward Hartpole Lecky Copy Share
I venture to maintain that there are multitudes to whom the necessity of discharging the duties of a butcher would be so inexpressibly painful… — William Edward Hartpole Lecky Copy Share
Anxiety and Ennui are the Scylla and Charybdis on which the bark of human happiness is most often wrecked. — William Edward Hartpole Lecky Copy Share
“One of the great differences between childhood and manhood is that we come to like our work more than our play. It becomes to… — William Edward Hartpole Lecky Copy Share
The doctrine of a material hell in its effect was to chill and deaden the sympathies, predispose men to inflict suffering, and to retard… — William Edward Hartpole Lecky Copy Share
All over Europe the organs that represent dogmatic interests are in permanent opposition to the progressive tendencies around them, and are rapidly sinking into… — William Edward Hartpole Lecky Copy Share
The simple record of these three short years of active life has done more to regenerate and soften mankind than all the discourses of… — William Edward Hartpole Lecky Copy Share
Contraction of theological influence has at once been the best measure, and the essential condition of intellectual advance. — William Edward Hartpole Lecky Copy Share
Fierce invectives against women form a conspicuous and grotesque portion of the writings of the Church fathers. — William Edward Hartpole Lecky Copy Share
