Most people get a fair amount of fun out of their lives, but on balance life is suffering, and only the very young or the very foolish imagine otherwise.

If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.

No doubt alcohol, tobacco, and so forth, are things that a saint must avoid; but sainthood is also a thing that human beings must avoid.

In our time political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible.

The planting of a tree, especially one of the long-living hardwood trees, is a gift which you can make to posterity at almost no cost and with almost no trouble, and if the tree takes root it will far outlive the visible effect of any of your other actions, good or evil.

A Socialist United States of Europe seems to me the only worth-while political objective today

It is curious how people take it for granted that they have a right to preach at you and pray over you as soon as your income falls below a certain level.