Arthur Balfour Quote

Man, so far as natural science by itself is able to teach us, is no longer the final cause of the universe, the Heaven-descended heir of all the ages. His very existence is an accident, his story a brief and transitory episode in the life of one of the meanest of the planets.

The Religion of Humanity: An Address Delivered at the Church Congress, Manchester, October 1888 (ed. 1888)