"Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do."

"Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality."

"Life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim."

"So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence."

"There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge."

"Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man."

"All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit."

"Political language. . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."

"It is one of the great secrets of life that those things which are most worth doing, we do for others."

"When the present is full of gloom, the past becomes haven of refuge that provides relief and inspiration."

"A man I am cross'd with adversity."

"The church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society."