We can conceive of eternity because we cannot conceive of a cessation of time. We can conceive of infinite space because we cannot conceive of so much matter that our imagination will not stand upon the farthest star and see infinite space beyond.

The more liberty you give away the more you will have.

When you go home, fill the house with joy so that the light of it will stream out the windows and doors and illuminate even the darkness. It is just as easy that way as any in the world.

The literature of many lands is rich with the tributes that gratitude, admiration and love have paid to the great and honored dead. These tributes disclose the character of nations, the ideals of the human race.

There can be goodness without much intelligence - but it seems to me that perfect intelligence and perfect goodness must go together.

He who refuses to stoop, who cannot be bribed by the promise of success or the fear of failure - who walks the highway of the right, and in disaster stands erect, is the only victor.

The religion that has to be supported by law is without value, not only, but a fraud and a curse. The religious argument that has to be supported by a musket is hardly worth making.

Nothing has been left undone by the enemies of freedom. Every art and artifice, every cruelty and outrage has been practiced and perpetrated to destroy the rights of man. In this great struggle, every crime has been rewarded and every virtue has been punished.

Let us put theology out of religion. Theology has always sent the worst to heaven, the best to hell.

The Church has always been willing to swap off treasures in heaven for cash down.

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.

Anger is a wind which blows out the lamp of the mind.

In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments; there are consequences.

The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart.

In the night of death, hope sees a star, and listening love can hear the rustle of a wing.

Hope is the only bee that makes honey without flowers.

Tolerance is giving to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself.

A great man does not seek applause or place; he seeks for truth; he seeks the road to happiness, and what he ascertains, he gives to others.

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

Give to every human being every right that you claim for yourself.

Kindness is the sunshine in which virtue grows.

In the presence of eternity, the mountains are as transient as the clouds.

Happiness is not a reward - it is a consequence. Suffering is not a punishment - it is a result.

When the will defies fear, when duty throws the gauntlet down to fate, when honor scorns to compromise with death - that is heroism.

What light is to the eyes - what air is to the lungs - what love is to the heart, liberty is to the soul of man.

Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so.

A great man is a torch in the darkness, a beacon in superstition's night, an inspiration and a prophecy.

Every man is dishonest who lives upon the labor of others, no matter if he occupies a throne.

Reason, observation, and experience; the holy trinity of science.

Hope is the only universal liar who never loses his reputation for veracity.

In the republic of mediocrity, genius is dangerous.

Colleges are places where pebbles are polished and diamonds are dimmed.

The time to be happy is now, and the place to be happy is here.

It is a blessed thing that in every age some one has had the individuality enough and courage enough to stand by his own convictions.

I will not attack your doctrines nor your creeds if they accord liberty to me. If they hold thought to be dangerous - if they aver that doubt is a crime, then I attack them one and all, because they enslave the minds of men.

I am the inferior of any man whose rights I trample under foot.

Courage without conscience is a wild beast.

There is a quiet about the life of a farmer, and the hope of a serene old age, that no other business or profession can promise.

Insolence is not logic; epithets are the arguments of malice.

Few rich men own their property; their property owns them.

Surely there is grandeur in knowing that in the realm of thought, at least, you are without a chain; that you have the right to explore all heights and depth; that there are no walls nor fences, nor prohibited places, nor sacred corners in all the vast expanse of thought.

I say that no man can be greater than the man who bravely and heroically sacrifices his life for the good of others. No man can be greater than the one who meets death face to face, and yet will not shrink from what he believes to be his highest duty.

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

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

Religion can never reform mankind because religion is slavery.

Beauty is not all there is of poetry. It must contain the truth. It is not simply an oak, rude and grand, neither is it simply a vine. It is both. Around the oak of truth runs the vine of beauty.

The doctrine of immortality rests upon human affection. We love; therefore, we wish to live.

The inspiration of the Bible depends upon the ignorance of the gentleman who reads it.

Science has nothing in common with religion. Facts and miracles never did and never will agree.

If a man would follow, today, the teachings of the Old Testament, he would be a criminal. If he would follow strictly the teachings of the New, he would be insane.