Argument cannot be answered with insults. Kindness is strength; anger blows out the lamp of the mind.
Fear is religion, courage is science.
A believer is a bird in a cage, a freethinker is an eagle parting the clouds with tireless wing.
If there is one subject in this world worthy of being discussed, worthy of being understood, it is the question of intellectual liberty. Without that, we are simply painted clay.
The clergy know that I know that they know that they do not know.
An infinite God ought to be able to protect himself, without going in partnership with State Legislatures. Certainly he ought not so to act that laws become necessary to keep him from being laughed at. No one thinks of protecting Shakespeare from ridicule, by the threat of fine and imprisonment.
No one infers a god from the simple, from the known, from what is understood, but from the complex, from the unknown, and incomprehensible. Our ignorance is God; what we know is science.
As more people become more intelligent they care less for preachers and more for teachers.
The more liberty you give away the more you will have.
If nobody has too much, everybody will have enough.
Love is natural. Back of allceremony burns and will forever burn the sacred flame. There has been no time in the world’s history when that torch was extinguished. In all ages, in all climes, among all people, there has been true, pure, and unselfish love.
A mule has neither pride of ancestry nor hope of posterity.
Few rich men own their property; their property owns them.
Blasphemy is an epithet bestowed by superstition upon common sense.
It is a blessed thing that in every age some one has had the individuality enough and courage enough to stand by his own convictions.
In the presence of eternity, the mountains are as transient as the clouds.
In the republic of mediocrity, genius is dangerous.
The glory of science is, that it is freeing the soul, breaking the mental manacles, getting the brain out of bondage, giving courage to thought, filling the world with mercy, justice, and joy.
We need men with moral courage to speak and write their real thoughts, and to stand by their convictions, even to the very death.
In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments; there are consequences.