To the wise man, to the wise nation, the mistakes of the past are the torches of the present.

It is with men as with other things. The mullein needs only a year, but the oak a century, and the greatest men are those who have continued to grow as long as they have lived.

He raised his hands, not to strike, but in benediction. Lincoln was the grandest figure of the fiercest civil war. He is the gentlest memory of our world.

The notion that faith in Christ is to be rewarded by an eternity of bliss, while a dependence upon reason, observation, and experience merits everlasting pain, is too absurd for refutation, and can be believed only by that unhappy mixture of insanity and ignorance, called faith.

The closer I'm bound in love to you, the closer I am to free.

The true civilization is where every man gives to every other every right that he claims for himself.

If I go to heaven I want to take my reason with me.