Civil government cannot let any group ride roughshod over others simply because their consciences tell them to do so.

The day that this country ceases to be free for irreligion it will cease to be free for religion - except for the sect that can win political power.

It is not the function of government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.

Those who begin coercive elimination of dissent soon find themselves exterminating dissenters. Compulsory unification of opinion achieves only the unanimity of the graveyard.

The common sense of mankind demands that law shall not stop with the punishment of petty crimes by little people. It must also reach men who possess themselves of great power.

I see no reason why I should be consciously wrong today because I was unconsciously wrong yesterday.

The price of freedom of religion or of speech or of the press is that we must put up with, and even pay for, a good deal of rubbish.

One's right to life, liberty, and property depends on the outcome of no election.

The most odious of all oppressions are those which mask as justice.

The priceless heritage of our society is the unrestricted constitutional right of each member to think as he will. Thought control is a copyright of totalitarianism, and we have no claim to it.

The very purpose of a bill of rights is to withdraw certain subjects from...political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities.

Your thoughts, beliefs, and interpretations filter how you see everything in your world—and here is the clincher—you get to choose!

Beauty is but a flower, which wrinkles will devour.

I'm already suspicious of anyone who thinks he or she is smart enough to be president. You'd have to have some ego to believe that about yourself.

A man becomes a friend whenever being loved he loves in return.

The Clan Mothers ran everything and had the last word. I think that's the answer.

Spreading an idea is hard work.

So you find yourself surrounded by death and horror in the world, and you escape it into lust. But lust has no duration; it leaves you again in the desert.

Over events, we may have some control, but over the law of life's progress none.

A letter is the most imperishable thing on earth.

The great thing about being a writer is that you are always recreating yourself.