Rudeness is better than any argument; it totally eclipses intellect.

That a god like Jehovah should have created this world of misery and woe, out of pure caprice, and because he enjoyed doing it, and should then have clapped his hands in praise of his own work, and declared everything to be very good-that will not do at all!

What makes people hard-hearted is this, that each man has, or fancies he has, as much as he can bear in his own troubles.

Solitude will be welcomed or endured or avoided, according as a man's personal value is large or small.

Style is what gives value and currency to thoughts.

Scholars are those who have read in books, but thinkers, men of genius, world-enlighteners, and reformers of the human race are those who have read directly in the book of the world.

It is only a man's own fundamental thoughts that have truth and life in them.