“That liberty [is pure] which is to go to all, and not to the few or the rich alone. (to Horatio Gates, 1798)”

“Don't give up the fight. Don't dim out the light. Those who at first don't believe in you, will soon begin to ask you "how did you do it?” Keep it up!”

“Em tempos, os homens entregavam o pensamento às máquinas, na esperança de que isso os libertasse. Mas só permitiu que outros homens com máquinas os escravizassem”

“...never [enter] into dispute or argument with another. I never saw an instance of one of two disputants convincing the other by argument. I have seen many, on their getting warm, becoming rude, & shooting one another. ... When I hear another express an opinion which is not mine, I say to myself, he has a right to his opinion, as I to mine; why should I question it? His error does me no injury, and shall I become a Don Quixote, to bring all men by force of argument to one opinion? ... There are two classes of disputants most frequently to be met with among us. The first is of young students, just entered the threshold of science, with a first view of its outlines, not yet filled up with the details & modifications which a further progress would bring to their knoledge. The other consists of the ill-tempered & rude men in society, who have taken up a passion for politics. ... Consider yourself, when with them, as among the patients of Bedlam, needing medical more than moral counsel. Be a listener only, keep within yourself, and endeavor to establish with yourself the habit of silence, especially on politics. In the fevered state of our country, no good can ever result from any attempt to set one of these fiery zealots to rights, either in fact or principle. They are determined as to the facts they will believe, and the opinions on which they will act. Get by them, therefore, as you would by an angry bull; it is not for a man of sense to dispute the road with such an animal.”

“The emotion of sex brings into being a state of mind.”

“Whatever you believe, with feeling, becomes your reality.”

“Connecting always requires energy.”

“A vision without a task is but a dream. A task without a vision is drudgery. But a vision and a task are the hope of the world.” 

“Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error.”

“Any Christian whose interest is directed toward himself is worldly.”

“The Bible is the textbook of revelation. In God’s great classroom there are three textbooks—one called nature, one called conscience, and one named Scripture. In the written textbook of revelation—the Bible—God speaks through words.”

“At every moment we have to decide whether a particular action will serve the atman or the body. We cannot, however, break open the cage of the body, and so we must simultaneously follow vidya and avidya, of knowledge and ignorance.”

“Those who are afraid of new ideas are doomed before they start.”

“To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful.”

“Stop worrying about the people who don’t like you and start getting busy finding the ones that do.”