When somebody teaches you to love something, you never forget that! It's such a generous thing to do.

I think if you put 100% into anything and you do it with authenticity and enthusiasm, then it really shines through.

I wish I had a filter; then, I'd suspect, who knows? I'd perhaps have more friends.

I give celebrity my undivided indifference. Now that it's here, there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. And people who complain about celebrity and any kind of privilege are, all of them, whinging morons, and they should keep their first-world problems to themselves. I feel very strongly about that.

The reality is that when you're a barrister, you're trained, and you've got ethical structures. You've got to follow the evidence, and that's that.

From time to time, I definitely look witheringly, which is why I'm well known.

Serious crime is very, very rare, and I think all of us are interested because they are rare and unusual. If they were banal and everyday, we wouldn't be interested in them at all.

Even my trolls have started taking the trouble to spell their Tweets correctly, which is thoughtful.

I do get stopped in the street, and people are always, without exception, really polite. I think it's because they think I can send them to prison.

Going to salsa clubs may be popular, but I feel we're really missing something as a society by overlooking ballroom dancing. If only we could persuade schools to teach it or there was somewhere young people could go on a Saturday night to learn it.

If a man would follow, today, the teachings of the Old Testament, he would be a criminal. If he would follow strictly the teachings of the New, he would be insane.

Science has nothing in common with religion. Facts and miracles never did and never will agree.

The inspiration of the Bible depends upon the ignorance of the gentleman who reads it.

The doctrine of immortality rests upon human affection. We love; therefore, we wish to live.

Beauty is not all there is of poetry. It must contain the truth. It is not simply an oak, rude and grand, neither is it simply a vine. It is both. Around the oak of truth runs the vine of beauty.

Religion can never reform mankind because religion is slavery.

I would rather live and love where death is king than have eternal life where love is not.

The true civilization is where every man gives to every other every right that he claims for himself.

I say that no man can be greater than the man who bravely and heroically sacrifices his life for the good of others. No man can be greater than the one who meets death face to face, and yet will not shrink from what he believes to be his highest duty.

Surely there is grandeur in knowing that in the realm of thought, at least, you are without a chain; that you have the right to explore all heights and depth; that there are no walls nor fences, nor prohibited places, nor sacred corners in all the vast expanse of thought.

Few rich men own their property; their property owns them.

Insolence is not logic; epithets are the arguments of malice.

There is a quiet about the life of a farmer, and the hope of a serene old age, that no other business or profession can promise.

Courage without conscience is a wild beast.