There is something frightful in the way in which not only characteristic qualities, but particular manifestations of them, are repeated from generation to generation.

[The Constitution] is an experiment as all life is an experiment.

Certitude is not the test of certainty.

Every idea is an incitement. It offers itself for belief, and if believed it is acted on unless some other belief outweighs it or some failure of energy stifles the movement at its birth. The only difference between the expression of an opinion and an incitement is the speaker's enthusiasm for the result.

A river is more than an amenity, it is a treasure.

It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the fallopian tubes. Three generations of imbeciles are enough.

What I wouldn't give to be seventy again!