Kindness is the sunshine in which virtue grows.

As a man develops, he places a greater value upon his own rights. Liberty becomes a grander and diviner thing. As he values his own rights he begins to value the rights of others. And when all men give to all others all the rights they claim for themselves, this world will be civilized.

I believe in the religion of reason -- the gospel of this world; in the development of the mind, in the accumulation of intellectual wealth, to the end that man may free himself from superstitious fear, to the end that he may take advantage of the forces of nature to feed and clothe the world.

I would rather live and love where death is king than have eternal life where love is not.

I have always noticed that the people who have the smallest souls make the most fuss about getting them saved.

As we become civilized we are governed less by persons and more by principles. . . . The best of all leaders is the man who teaches people to lead themselves.

A believer is a bird in a cage, a freethinker is an eagle parting the clouds with tireless wing.