The learned are seldom pretty fellows, and in many cases their appearance tends to discourage a love of study in the young.

The two main ideas that run through all of my writing, whether it be literary criticism or political polemic are these: I am strong in favor of liberty and I hate fraud.

It seems to me that a great university ought to have room in it for men subscribing to every sort of idea that is currently prevalent

Setting aside the vast herd which shows no definable character at all, it seems to me that the minority distinguished by what is commonly regarded as an excess of sin is very much more admirable than the minority distinguished by an excess of virtue. My experience of the world has taught me that the average wine-bibbler is a far better fellow than the average prohibitionist, and that the average rogue is better company than the average poor drudge, and that the worst white-slave trader of my acquaintance is a decenter man than the best vice crusader.

The chief business of the nation, as a nation, is the setting up of heroes, mainly bogus.

It is only doubt that creates. It is only the minority that counts.

Law and its instrument, government, are necessary to the peace and safety of all of us, but all of us, unless we live the lives of mud turtles, frequently find them arrayed against us.