If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.

To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.

The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.

A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.

He who dares not offend cannot be honest.

[A]ll churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Muslim, are simply human inventions. They use fear to enslave us. They are a monopoly for power and profit.

The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.

Religion is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize humankind; and, for my part, I sincerely detest it as I detest everything that is cruel.

Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.

He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.

They will become Godly when they will have God in their hearts.

I got this story from someone who had no business in the telling of it.

One of the advantages of the book's having been out there for more than a quarter century is that there's been time for people to report back on what it's done for them.

I would advise young artists to paint as they can, as long as they can, without being afraid of painting badly.

I'd find it demeaning to be cleaning toilets.

Sin doesn't make us bad, sin makes us dead. The gospel doesn't make us better, the gospel makes us alive.

All those days of waiting on tables until I could get a role on Broadway, all that time going to school taking lessons, and all those years of being a nobody following a dream-and now here it is.

You can be a star here in Europe and not be known at all in the United States.

When you read and understand a poem, comprehending its rich and formal meanings, then you master chaos a little.

Most armies are in fact run by their sergeants - the officers are there just to give things a bit of tone and prevent warfare becoming a mere lower-class brawl.