A great man need not be virtuous, nor his opinions right, but he must have a firm mind, a distinctive luminous character.

Each religion necessarily contradicts every other religion, and probably contradicts itself. Religions, like languages, are necessary rivals. What religion a man shall have is a historical accident, quite as much as what language he shall speak.

Prayer is not a substitute for work; it is an effort to work further and be efficient beyond the range of one's powers.

There is no dunce like a mature dunce.

Man is a fighting animal; his thoughts are his banners, and it is a failure of nerve in him if they are only thoughts.

It is war that wastes a nations wealth, chokes its industries, kills its flower, narrows its sympathies, condemns it to be governed by adventurers, and leaves the puny, deformed, and unmanly to breed the next generation.

Art like life, should be free, since both are experimental.