I would rather smoke one cigar than hear two sermons.

There is more real devotional feeling summoned from the temple of the mind by great music than by any sermon ever delivered.

Spirituality for the most part is a mask worn by idleness, arrogance and greed.

The mechanic, when a wheel refuses to turn, never thinks of dropping on his knees and asking the assistance of some divine power. He knows there is a reason. He knows that something is too large or too small; that there is something wrong with his machine; and he goes to work and he makes it larger or smaller, here or there, until the wheel will turn.

The savage prays to a stone that he calls a god, while the Christian prays to a god he calls a spirit, and the prayers of both are equally useful.

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

Give me the storm and tempest of thought and action, rather than the dead calm of ignorance and faith! Banish me from Eden when you will; but first let me eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge!