"A subject for a great poet would be God's boredom after the seventh day of creation."

"Not by wrath does one kill, but by laughter."

"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."

"Not to see many things, not to hear them, not to let them approach one--first piece of ingenuity, first proof that one is no accident but a necessity."

"In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point."

"A thinker sees his own actions as experiments and questions--as attempts to find out something. Success and failure are for him answers above all."

"To know all is not to forgive all. It is to despise everybody."

"The scars of others should teach us caution."

"How much I love every thing that is decided and open!"

"God forbid that any book should be banned. The practice is as indefensible as infanticide."

"Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled."

"My education was dismal. I went to a series of schools for mentally disturbed teachers."