We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter.

Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.

All things must be examined, debated, investigated without exception and without regard for anyone's feelings.

Those who fear the facts will forever try to discredit the fact-finders.

Disturbances in society are never more fearful than when those who are stirring up the trouble can use the pretext of religion to mask their true designs.

Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things.

Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy.

Oh! how near are genius and madness! Men imprison them and chain them, or raise statues to them.

In general, children, like men, and men, like children, prefer entertainment to education.

Although a man may wear fine clothing, if he lives peacefully; and is good, self-possessed, has faith and is pure; and if he does not hurt any living being, he is a holy man.

Pithy sentences are like sharp nails which force truth upon our memory.

You know what I did after I wrote my first novel? I shut up and wrote twenty-three more.")

Steam is no stronger now than it was a hundred years ago but it is put to better use.

The lack of access to proper nutrition is not only fueling obesity, it is leading to food insecurity and hunger among our children.

I hate cameras. They interfere, they're always in the way. I wish: if I could work with my eyes alone.

The first Broadway show I saw was when I was 11. I saw 'Hair.

Like most Rebel soldiers, Sam Watkins owned no slaves.

Language furnishes the best proof that a law accepted by a community is a thing that is tolerated and not a rule to which all freely consent.

The people who are right a lot often change their minds.

Is it really credible that random processes could have constructed a reality...which excels in every sense anything produced by the intelligence of man?

It's weird, how much he's noticed me... And apparently, I have not been as oblivious to him as I imagined, either.