Roscoe Conkling was a man of superb courage. He not only acted without fear, but he had that fortitude of soul which bears the consequences of the course pursued without complaint.

Secularism is a religion, a religion that is understood. It has no mysteries, no mumblings, no priests, no ceremonies, no falsehoods, no miracles, and no persecutions.

Religion can never reform mankind because religion is slavery.

Happiness is not a reward - it is a consequence. Suffering is not a punishment - it is a result.

Do you not know that every religion in the world has declared every other religion a fraud? Yes, we all know it. That is the time all religions tell the truth - each of the other.

Superstition is, always has been, and forever will be, the foe of progress, the enemy of education and the assassin of freedom.

The myth of hell represents all the meanness, all the revenge, all the selfishness, all the cruelty, all the hatred, all the infamy of which the heart of man is capable.

Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so.

Give to every human being every right that you claim for yourself.

The intellectual advancement of man depends on how often he can exchange an old superstition for a new truth.

There can be but little liberty on earth while men worship a tyrant in heaven.

Patience is underscored with forgiveness.

You're terribly selfish, you know. I've loved you so long, and it was never dear or precious to you. I might as well have not loved you at all.

One of the perils of life is to be asked a question which the wisest of them cannot answer. But a smile does the job.

A person can be educated and still be stupid, and a wise man can have no education at all.

Church should be enjoyed, not endured.

I go for all the belles, except the wedding kind.

I see bits and pieces of me in all the characters in my films.

I love fashion, but maybe I love it peripherally.

The heart, like the grape, is prone to delivering its harvest in the same moment it appears to be crushed.

The day it all went wrong for me was 11 August 1989. That was the day I killed a man for the first time.