59 quotes
You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man's freedom. You can only be free if I am free.
Arguments in the Case of the Communist Labor Party (1920)
I have always felt that doubt was the beginning of wisdom, and the fear of God was the end of wisdom.
Chase after the truth like all hell and you’ll free yourself, even though you never touch its coat tails.
I have never killed any one, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction.
Liberty is the most jealous and exacting mistress that can beguile the brain and soul of man.
One cannot live through a long stretch of years without forming some philosophy of life.
In the great flood of human life that is spawned upon the earth, it is not often that a man is born.
No nation can be really great that is held together by Gatling guns, and no true loyalty can be induced and kept through fear.
Resist Not Evil (1904)
I had grown tired of standing in the lean and lonely front line facing the greatest enemy that ever confronted man — public opinion.
There is no such thing as justice — in or out of court.
If there is to be any permanent improvement in man and any better social order, it must come mainly from the education and humanizing of man.
Crime : Its Cause And Treatment (1922)
Life is an unpleasant interruption of a peaceful nothingness–and when the interruption is over, you are at peace.
Autobiography is never entirely true. No one can get the right perspective on himself. Every fact is colored by imagination and dream.
Man does not live by truth, but by the illusions that his brain conceives.
The Constitution is a delusion and a snare if the weakest and humblest man in the land cannot be defended in his right to speak and his right to think as much as the strongest in the land.
Arguments in the Case of the Communist Labor Party (1920)
I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure — that is all that agnosticism means.
The purpose of life is living. Men and women should get the most they can out of their lives.
Infidels and Heretics : An Agnostic's Anthology (1929)
I don't believe in God because I don't believe in Mother Goose.
Speech in Toronto (1930)
The fear of God is not the beginning of wisdom. The fear of God is the death of wisdom. Skepticism and doubt lead to study and investigation, and investigation is the beginning of wisdom.
Why I Am An Agnostic (1929)
All men do the best they can. But none meet life honestly and few heroically.
Infidels and Heretics : An Agnostic's Anthology (1929)