The essence of science is that it is always willing to abandon a given idea for a better one; the essence of theology is that it holds its truths to be eternal and immutable.

I detest converts almost as much as I do missionaries.

The theory behind representative government is that superior men-or at least men not inferior to the average in ability and integrity-are chosen to manage the public business, and that they carry on this work with reasonable intelligence and honest. There is little support for that theory in known facts.

I've made it a rule never to drink by daylight and never to refuse a drink after dark.

What is too often forgotten is that nature obviously intends the botched to die, and that every interference with that benign process is full of dangers.

The military caste did not originate as a party of patriots, but as a party of bandits

I believe that it should be perfectly lawful to print even things that outrage the pruderies and prejudices of the general, so long as any honest minority, however small, wants to read them. The remedy of the majority is not prohibition, but avoidance.