Felix Adler

“The Ethical Society, therefore, is like a Church in maintaining, and emphasizing the importance of maintaining the custom of public assemblies on Sunday.”

“The office of the public teacher is an unenviable and thankless one.”

“Every dogma, every philosophic or theological creed, was at its inception a statement in terms of the intellect of a certain inner experience.”

“If you desire information on some point of law, you are not likely to ponder over the ponderous tomes of legal writers in order to obtain the knowledge you seek, by your own unaided efforts.”

“Ethical religion can be real only to those who are engaged in ceaseless efforts at moral improvement. By moving upward we acquire faith in an upward movement, without limit.”

“Act so as to elicit the best in others and thereby in thyself.”

“Where the roots of private virtue are diseased, the fruit of public probity cannot but be corrupt.”

“The platform of an Ethical Society is itself the altar; the address must be the fire that burns thereon.”

“The exercises of our meeting are to be simple and devoid of all ceremonial and formalism.”

“No religion can long continue to maintain its purity when the church becomes the subservient vassal of the state.”