The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts.

The scientist who yields anything to theology, however slight, is yielding to ignorance and false pretenses, and as certainly as if he granted that a horse-hair put into a bottle of water will turn into a snake.

Men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in their readiness to doubt.

I believe that all government is evil, in that all government must necessarily make war on liberty, and that the democratic government is at least as bad as any of the other forms.

I am never much interested in the effects of what I write....I seldom read with any attention the reviews of my...books. Two times out of three I know something about the reviewer, and in very few cases have I any respect for his judgments. Thus his praise, if he praises me, leaves me unmoved. I can't recall any review that has even influenced me in the slightest. I live in sort of a vacuum, and I suspect that most other writers do, too. It is hard to imagine one of the great ones paying any serious attention to contemporary opinion.

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

Liberty and democracy are eternal enemies, and every one knows it who has ever given any sober reflection to the matter.