A Flower Is An Educated Weed.

If We Had Paid No More Attention To Our Plants Than We Have To Our Children, We Would Now Be Living In A Jungle Of Weed.

Although I Went To College As A Youth, I Never Considered It Necessary To Steep Oneself In Academic Learning, In Order To Learn How To Think. I Welcome A Fair And Square, Open And Above-board Fight On Any Subject, Including This, But I Despise A Man Who Sneaks Around Under A Cloak Or Cover Of Any Society Or Clique To Strike His Blows.

I Have Seen Myself Lose Intolerance, Narrowness, Bigotry, Complacence, Pride And A Whole Bushel-basket Of Other Intellectual Vices Through My Contact With Nature And With Men. And When You Take Weeds Out Of A Garden It Gives You Room To Grow Flowers. So, Every Time I Lost A Little Self-satisfaction, Or Arrogance, I Could Plant Some Broadness Or Love Of My Own In Its Place, And After A While The Garden Of My Mind Began To Bloom And Be Fragrant And I Found Myself Better Equipped For My Work And More Useful To Others As A Consequence.

I Have Learned From Nature That Dependence On Unnatural Beliefs Weakens Us In The Struggle And Shortens Our Breath For The Race.

Let Us Read The Bible Without The Ill-fitting Colored Spectacles Of Theology, Just As We Read Other Books, Using Our Own Judgment And Reason, Listening To The Voice Within, Not To The Noisy Babel Without. Most Of Us Possess Discriminating Reasoning Powers. Can We Use Them Or Must We Be Fed By Others Like Babes?