It is painful to behold a man employing his talents to corrupt himself.

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.

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

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.

Catching up with the end result is never final, until it is, upon death.

I could feel the tears streaming down my face—in some kind of frenzied competition with the rain. At first, I tried to brush the tears away, but I finally let them take their course, unabated.

In the Church, and in the journey of faith, women have had and still have a special role in opening doors to the Lord.

You have to steer a course between not appalling people, but at the same time not misleading them.

I've got the body of a model and the face of a coal miner.

Within crisis, are the seeds of opportunity.

Respect the child. Be not too much his parent. Trespass not on his solitude.

It doesn’t matter what it is, it becomes better with love.

My wanting to write books annihilates the original root impulse that would have me bravely and blunderingly working on them.

Not in sorrow freely is never to open the bosom to the sweets of the sunshine.