The first step is for man to cease to be the slave of man. The second, is to cease to be the slave of the monsters of his own creation, the ghosts and phantoms of the air.

It is grander to think and investigate for yourself than to repeat a creed.

The good part of Christmas is not always Christian -- it is generally Pagan; that is to say, human, natural.

In all ages, hypocrites, called priests, have put crowns upon the heads of thieves, called kings.

In my judgment, the Deists were all successfully answered. The god of nature is certainly as bad as the God of the Old Testament. It is only when we discard the idea of a deity, the idea of cruelty or goodness in nature, that we are able ever to bear with patience the ills of life. I feel that I am neither a favorite nor a victim. Nature neither loves nor hates me.

It is a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have education without common sense.

There is something tenderly appropriate in the serene death of the old. Nothing is more touching than the death of the young, the strong.