“The man who fights for his fellow-man is a better man than the one who fights for himself.”

I don’t believe in God because I don’t believe in Mother Goose.

My constitution was destroyed long ago; now I am living under the bylaws.

Chloroform unfit children. Show them the same mercy that is shown beasts that are no longer fit to live.

Someday I hope to write a book where the royalties will pay for the copies I give away.

Just think of the tragedy of teaching children not to doubt.

Whenever I hear people discussing birth control, I always remember that I was fifth.

In spite of all the yearnings of men, no one can produce a single fact or reason to support the belief in God and in personal immortality.

I have suffered from being misunderstood, but I would have suffered a hell of a lot more if I had been understood.

I am an agnostic; I do not pretend to know what many ignorant men are sure of.

I feel as I always have, that the earth is the home and the only home of man, and I am convinced that whatever he is to get out of his existence he must get while he is here.

Inside every lawyer is the wreck of a poet.

Eugene V. Debs has always been one of my heroes.

No man is a good citizen, a good neighbor, a good friend, or a good man just because he obeys the law. The intrinsic worth is determined mainly by the intrinsic make-up.

Liberty is the most jealous and exacting mistress that can beguile the brain and soul of man.

I have lived my life, and I have fought my battles, not against the weak and the poor – anybody can do that – but against power, against injustice, against oppression, and I have asked no odds from them, and I never shall.

If you lose the power to laugh, you lose the power to think.

It’s better to look at the sky than live there.

Better hope deferred than none.

Better to make a good future than predict a bad one.

What is better than wisdom? Woman. And what is better than a good woman? Nothing.

When one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language.

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.

Good luck and believe me, dearest Doc – it’s better to look at the sky than live there. Such an empty place; so vague. Just a country where the thunder goes and things disappear.

Fail, fail again, fail better.