A man’s ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.
Albert Einstein, physicist
Truth is so rare that it is delightful to tell it.
Emily Dickenson, American poet
All these people talk so eloquently about getting back to good old-fashioned values…and I say let’s get back to the good old-fashioned First Amendment of the good old fashioned Constitution of the United States – and to hell with the censors! Give me knowledge or give me death!
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. American Writer
Our wretched species is so made that those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road.
Voltaire (1694-1778)
Freethinkers are those who are willing to use their minds without prejudice and without fearing to understand things that clash with their customs, privileges, or beliefs. This state of mind is not common, but it is essential for right thinking; where it is absent, discussion is apt to become worse than useless.
Leo Tolstoy, (1828-1910), On Life [...]
Character assassination is at once easier and surer than physical assault; and it involves far less risk for the assassin. It leaves him free to commit the same deed over and over again, and may, indeed, win him the honors of a hero in the country of his victims.
Alan Barth, The Loyalty of Free Men, 1951
The freedom to share one’s insights and judgments verbally or in writing is, just like the freedom to think, a holy and inalienable right of humanity that, as a universal human right, is above all the rights of princes.
Carl Friedrich Bahrdt (1740-1792) On Freedom of the Press and its Limits, 1787.
As long and I don’t write about the government, religion, politics, and other institutions, I am free to print anything.
Pierre-Augustin Beaumarchais (1732-1799)
The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing.
John Adams, U. S. President, 1765.
It is the mark of an educated man to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
Aristotle (384-322 B.C.).
