A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself, and a mean man, by one lower than himself.

Nothing is orderly till man takes hold of it. Everything in creation lies around loose.

Some men are, in regard to ridicule, like tin-roofed buildings in regard to hail: all that hits them bounds rattling off; not a stone goes through.

The God of the Bible is a moral monstrosity.

Let parents who hate their offspring rear them to hate labor, and to inherit riches; and before long they will be stung by every vice, racked by its poison, and damned by its penalty.

Some people think black is the color of heaven, and that the more they can make their faces look like midnight, the more evidence they have of grace. But God, who made the sun and the flowers, never sent me to proclaim to you such a lie as that.

Only have enough of little virtues and common fidelities, and you need not mourn because you are neither a hero nor a saint.