Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must like men undergo the fatigue of supporting it.

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.

Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them

The first and final thing you have to do in this world is to last in it and not be smashed by it.

You never know what you're going to have to face, so you'd better be prepared.

IQ and technical skills are important, but emotional intelligence is the sine qua non of leadership.

People who don't listen make me annoyed. That's the normal stuff, isn't it?

I believe that government is for the use of the people, and not the people for the use of the government.

[Garry Winogrand] was a bull of a man and the world his china shop.

Practice only makes for improvement.

But you finally think, there is what there is, and you have to work within those confines and just keep chipping away at your own work.

This is how I understand literature - as a kind of remix or echo chamber. What's going on in a literary work are other literary things disinterred, cannibalized, and recombined.