It is a peculiarity of the American mind that it regards any excursion into the truth as an adventure into cynicism

I believe that it is better to tell the truth than a lie. I believe it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe it is better to know than to be ignorant.

The truth that survives is simply the lie that is pleasantest to believe

The truth is that the average schoolmaster, on all the lower levels, is and always must be essentially and next door to an idiot, for how can one imagine an intelligent man engaging in so puerile an avocation?

It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place.

The fundamentalist mind, running in a single rut for fifty years, is now quite unable to comprehend dissent from its basic superstitions, or to grant any common honesty, or even any decency, to those who reject them