Every Tory is a coward; for servile, slavish, self-interested fear is the foundation of Toryism; and a man under such influence, though he may be cruel, never can be brave.

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.

There's no way to learn how to write a hit song. There's no formula for it. You just have to have it inside of you.

Plato was only a Bernard Shaw who unfortunately made his jokes in Greek.

As an actor, you have to be open to doing things where you look stupid, to be experimental.

There are guys in country music who are wizards on the guitar. If you're a country fan, you're used to it. But as a rock guitar player, you listen.

Violence wounds the body and it wounds the soul. Of the predator. Of the prey. Of the mourners. Of collective humanity. It diminishes us all.

Despots and democratic majorities are drunk with power.

People would cheer throw confetti and then go about breaking the resolutions they had made only moments before.

It is fatal to let any dog know that he is funny, for he immediately loses his head and starts hamming it up.

The way to be a man if you're a little boy is to be willing to throw your weight around.

You can remember the second and the third and the fourth time, but there's no time like the first. It's always there.