Liberty is of small value to the lower third of humanity. They greatly prefer security, which means protection by some class above them. They are always in favor of despots who promise to feed them. The only liberty an inferior man really cherishes is the liberty to quit work, stretch out in the sun, and scratch himself.

Well, I tell you, if I have been wrong in my agnosticism, when I die I'll walk up to God in a manly way and say, Sir, I made an honest mistake.

Youth, though it may lack knowledge, is certainly not devoid of intelligence; it sees through shams with sharp and terrible eyes.

Friendship is a common belief in the same fallacies, mountebanks and hobgoblins.

No man ever quite believes in any other man.

Philosophy first constructs a scheme of happiness and then tries to fit the world to it.

No man is worthy of unlimited reliance-his treason, at best, only waits for sufficient temptation.