The great artists of the world are never Puritans, and seldom even ordinarily respectable.

The great difficulty about keeping the Ten Commandments is that no man can keep them and be a gentleman.

Liberty is not for these slaves; I do not advocate inflicting it against their conscience. On the contrary, I am strongly in favor of letting them crawl and grovel all they please before whatever fraud or combination of frauds they choose to venerate...Our whole practical government is grounded in mob psychology and the Boobus Americanus will follow any command that promises to make him safer.

Any defeat, however trivial, may be fatal to a savior of the plain people. They never admire a messiah with a bloody nose.

For the habitual truth-teller and truth-seeker, indeed, the whole world has very little liking. He is always unpopular.

Absence is the dark-room in which lovers develop negatives.

I think the Negro people should feel secure enough by now to face a reasonable ridicule without terror. I am unalterably opposed to all efforts to put down free speech, whatever the excuse.