Quotes from Felix Adler

We measure our enjoyments by the sum expended.

Dogma is the convictions of one man imposed authoritatively upon others.

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

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.

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.

Act so as to encourage the best in others, and by so doing you will develop the best in yourself.

FOR a long time the conviction has been dimly felt in the community that, without prejudice to existing institutions, the legal day of weekly rest might be employed to advantage for purposes affecting the general good.

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

The unique personality which is the real life in me, I cannot gain unless I search for the real life, the spiritual quality, in others.

In a country of such recent civilization as ours, whose almost limitless treasures of material wealth invite the risks of capital and the industry of labor, it is but natural that material interests should absorb the attention of the people to a degree elsewhere unknown.

Few are there that will leave the secure seclusion of the scholar's life, the peaceful walks of literature and learning, to stand out a target for the criticism of unkind and hostile minds.

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.

For more than three thousand years men have quarreled concerning the formulas of their faith.

The hero is one who kindles a great light in the world, who sets up blazing torches in the dark streets of life for men to see by.

Perhaps a hundred people assembled one evening, May 15, 1876, at the time when the country was celebrating the hundredth anniversary of its political independence.

The past speaks to us in a thousand voices, warning and comforting, animating and stirring to action.

The freedom of thought is a sacred right of every individual man, and diversity will continue to increase with the progress, refinement, and differentiation of the human intellect.

Admitting the force of these contentions, nevertheless, the custom of meeting together in public assembly for the consideration of the most serious, the most exalted topics of human interest is too vitally precious to be lost.

Simplicity should not be identified with bareness.

The family is the school of duties - founded on love.

For more than three thousand years men have quarreled concerning the formulas of their faith.

Few are there that will leave the secure seclusion of the scholar's life, the peaceful walks of literature and learning, to stand out a target for the criticism of unkind and hostile minds.

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