If I do not believe as you believe, it proves that you do not believe as I believe, and that is all that it proves.

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.

She had this way of always finding the good and believing in everything despite all she had seen.

There is no more reason to believe that man descended from some inferior animal than there is to believe that a stately mansion has descended from a small cottage.

Self-esteem and self-love are the opposites of fear; the more you like yourself, the less you fear anything.

The best thing to know is what you don't know.

Only worry about things that are within your control

I have only one eye. Do you want me to look at the road or the at the speedometer.

This is the world I want to live in. The shared world.

At my age, you not only have bittersweet memories, you make bittersweet plans.

we dislike those we've injured.

No emotion or insight is too small to inflict on the world. Let it all fly. Don't let it eat you from the inside.