A miracle is the badge and brand of fraud. ... No intelligent, honest man ever pretended to perform a miracle, and never will.

When one of your children tells a lie, be honest with him; tell him that you have told hundreds of them yourself. Tell him it is not the best way; that you have tried it. Tell him as the man did in Maine when his boy left home: "John, honesty is the best policy; I have tried both."

This crime called blasphemy was invented by priests for the purpose of defending doctrines not able to take care of themselves.

It seems to me that if there is some infinite being who wants us to think alike he would have made us alike.

The meanest hut with love in it is a palace fit for the gods, and a palace without love is a den only fit for wild beasts.

I do not believe in loving enemies; I have pretty hard work to love my friends.

I am the inferior of any man whose rights I trample under foot. Men are not superior by reason of accidents of race or color. They are superior who have the best heart-the best brain.