"Every science has for its basis a system of principles as fixed and unalterable as those by which the universe is regulated and governed. Man cannot make principles; he can only discover them."

"In the early ages of the world, according to the scripture chronology, there were no kings; the consequence of which was there were no wars; it is the pride of kings which throws mankind into confusion."

"The Vatican is a dagger in the heart of Italy."

"Reason obeys itself, and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it."

"Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it."

"Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law."

"Every child born in the world must be considered as deriving its existence from God. The world is this new to him as it was to the first that existed, and his natural right in it is of the same kind."

"In stating these matters, I speak an open and disinterested language, dictated by no passion but that of humanity. To me, who have not only refused offers, because I thought them improper, but have declined rewards I might with reputation have accepted, it is no wonder that meanness and imposition appear disgustful. Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good."

"Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst."

"The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark."

"There are injuries which nature cannot forgive, she would cease to be nature if she did."

"My own mind is my own church."

"The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."

"It is from the Bible that man has learned cruelty, rapine, and murder; for the belief of a cruel God makes a cruel man."

"Government even in its best state is but a necessary evil in its worst state an intolerable one."

"He who is the author of a war lets loose the whole contagion of hell and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death."

"Those who want to reap the benefits of this great nation must bear the fatigue of supporting it."

"One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests."

"Titles are but nicknames, and every nickname is a title."

"A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right."

"When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon."

"It is the direction and not the magnitude which is to be taken into consideration."

"There is an unnatural unfitness in an aristocracy to be legislators for a nation. Their ideas of distributive justice are corrupted at the very source. They begin life trampling on all their younger brothers and sisters, and relations of every kind, and are taught and educated so to do. With what ideas of justice or honor can that man enter a house of legislation, who absorbs in his own person the inheritance of a whole family of children, or metes out some pitiful portion with the insolence of a gift?"

"It is an affront to treat falsehood with complaisance."

"Calumny is a vice of curious constitution trying to kill it keeps it alive leave it to itself and it will die a natural death."

"Time makes more converts than reason."

"It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving, it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe."

"To establish any mode to abolish war, however advantageous it might be to Nations, would be to take from such Government the most lucrative of its branches."

"It is painful to behold a man employing his talents to corrupt himself. Nature has been kinder to Mr. Burke than he is to her. He is not affected by the reality of distress touching his heart, but by the showy resemblance of it striking his imagination. He pities the plumage, but forgets the dying bird."

"What is it the Bible teaches us? - repine, cruelty, and murder. What is it the Testament teaches us? - to believe that the Almighty committed debauchery with a woman engaged to be married; and the belief of this debauchery is called faith."

"A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody."

"An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot."

"Nothing, they say is more certain than death, and nothing more uncertain than the time of dying."

"Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon, than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness, that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind; and, for my part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel."

"It is not in numbers, but in unity, that our great strength lies."

"I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace."

"Now, if the writers of these four books [Gospels] had gone into a court of justice to prove an alibi, (for it is of the nature of an alibi that is here attempted to be proved, namely, the absence of a dead body by supernatural means,) and had they given their evidence in the same contradictory manner as it is here given, they would have been in danger of having their ears cropt for perjury, and would have justly deserved it. Yet this is the evidence, and these are the books, that have been imposed upon the world as being given by divine inspiration, and as the unchangeable word of God."

"The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection."

"It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry."

"To say that any people are not fit for freedom, is to make poverty their choice, and to say they had rather be loaded with taxes than not."

"Every man who knows anything of languages, knows that it is impossible to translate from one language into another, not only without losing a great part of the original, but frequently of mistaking the sense."

"The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance."

"If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace."

"Is the power who is jealous of our prosperity, a proper power to govern us?"

"My country is the world, and my religion is to do good."

"Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best stage, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one."

"We still find the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry and grasping at the spoil of the multitude. Invention is continually exercised to furnish new pretenses for revenue and taxation. It watches prosperity as its prey and permits none to escape without a tribute."

"Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man."

"Ignorance is of a peculiar nature; once dispelled, it is impossible to reestablish it. It is not originally a thing of itself, but is only the absence of knowledge; and though man may be kept ignorant, he cannot be made ignorant."

"When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary."