The essence of lying is in deception, not in words.

He’s a wonderful talker, who has the art of telling you nothing in a great harangue.

No problem is so deep that it cannot be overcome, given the will of all parties, through discussion and negotiation rather than force and violence.

We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent coannihilation. This may well be mankind's last chance between chaos and community.

Thanks to words, we have been able to rise above the brutes; and thanks to words, we have often sunk to the level of the demons.

We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still.

When one remains silent in the face of oppression, one is on the side of the oppressor.

Words are more treacherous and powerful than we think.

Noise proves nothing. Often a hen who has merely laid an egg crackles as if she had laid an asteroid.

The thing I hate about an argument is that it always interrupts a discussion.

Where words fail, music speaks.

I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.

The liar is no better than the thief, and if his mendacity takes the form of slander he may be worse than most thieves. It puts a premium upon knavery untruthfully to attack an honest man, or even with hysterical exaggeration to assail a bad man with untruth.

Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.

When whole races and peoples conspire to propagate gigantic mute lies in the interest of tyrannies and shams, why should we care anything about the trifling lies told by individuals?

We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.

If you cannot be honest with yourself, there is no hope of being honest with anyone else.

Always go too far, because that’s where you’ll find the truth.

Re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul; and your very flesh shall be a great poem, and have the richest fluency, not only in its words, but in the silent lines of its lips and face, and between the lashes of your eyes, and in every motion and joint of your body.

It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.

Everything you say should be true but not everything true should be said.