J. Green Quotes
There is something tenderly appropriate in the serene death of the old. Nothing is more touching than the death of the young, the strong.
I admit that books were voted in and out, and that the Bible was finally formed in accordance with a vote.
The emblem of equal rights. It means free hands, free lips, self- government, and the sovereignty of the individual.
At thirty most men have prejudices rather than opinions-that is to say, rather than judgments-and few men have lived to be sixty without materially modifying the opinions they held at thirty.
By physical liberty I mean the right to do anything which does not interfere with the happiness of another. By intellectual liberty I mean the right to think and the right to think wrong.
Intellect, without heart, is infinitely cruel. . . . So that, after all, the real aristocracy must be that of goodness where the intellect is directed by the heart.
Nothing is greater than to break the chains from the bodies of men, nothing nobler than to destroy the phantom of the soul.
Logic is not satisfied with assertion. It cares nothing for the opinions of the great; nothing for the prejudices of the many, and least of all for the superstitions of the dead.
The greatest superstition now entertained by public men is that hypocrisy is the royal road to success.
We must remember that we have to make judges out of men, and that by being made judges their prejudices are not diminished and their intelligence is not increased.
If we have the right to use our reason, we certainly have the right to act in accordance with it, and no god can have the right to punish us for such action
Great virtues may draw attention from defects, they cannot sanctify them. A pebble surrounded by diamonds remains a common stone, and a diamond surrounded by pebbles is still a gem.
Wait until the world is free before you write a creed. In this creed there will be but one word -- Liberty.
All religions are inconsistent with mental freedom. Shakespeare is my bible, Burns my hymn-book.
It is impossible for me to conceive of a character more utterly detestable than that of the Hebrew god.
We have at last ascertained that miracles can be perfectly understood; that there is nothing mysterious about them; that they are simply transparent falsehoods.
Music was born of love. Had there never been any human affection, there never could have been uttered a strain of music.
Take the word Liberty from human speech and all the other words become poor, withered, meaningless sounds - but with that word realized - with that word understood, the world becomes a paradise.
Civilization has gotten further and further from the so-called 'natural' man, who uses all his faculties: perception, invention, improvisation.
Jehovah was not a moral god. He had all the vices and he lacked all the virtues. He generally carried out all his threats, but he never faithfully kept a promise.
The ideas of right and wrong change with the experience of the race, and this change is wrought by the gradual ascertaining of consequences - of results.
The combined wisdom and genius of all mankind cannot possibly conceive of an argument against liberty of thought.
It cannot be too often repeated, that truth scorns the assistance of miracle.
They knew no better, but I do not propose to follow the example of a barbarian because he was honestly a barbarian.
I cannot see why we should expect an infinite God to do better in another world than he does in this.
The meanest hut with love in it is a palace fit for the gods, and a palace without love is a den only fit for wild beasts.
No God can put a man in hell in another world, who has made a little heaven in this. God cannot make a man miserable if that man has made somebody else happy.
There is only one way to be happy, and that is to make somebody else so, and you cannot be happy by going cross lots; you have got to go the regular turnpike road.
The moment you introduce a despotism in the world of thought, you succeed in making hypocrites - and you get in such a position that you never know what your neighbor thinks.
Heresy is what the minority believe; it is the name given by the powerful to the doctrines of the weak.
Above all things, one should maintain his self-respect, and there is but one way to do that, and that is to live in accordance with your highest ideal.