It Is Impossible That A Man Who

How Often Must I Repeat, That I Know Or Am Conscious Of My Own Being; And That I Myself Am Not My Ideas, But Somewhat Else, A Thinking, Active Principle That Perceives, Knows, Wills, And Operates About Ideas?

The Same Principles Which At First View Lead To Skepticism, Pursued To A Certain Point, Bring Men Back To Common Sense.

To Me It Seems That Liberty And Virtue Were Made For Each Other. If Any Man Wish To Enslave His Country, Nothing Is A Fitter Preparative Than Vice; And Nothing Leads To Vice So Surely As Irreligion.

It Would Much Conduce To The Public Benefit, If, Instead Of Discouraging Free-thinking, There Was Erected In The Midst Of This Free Country A Dianoetic Academy, Or Seminary For Free-thinkers, Provided With Retired Chambers, And Galleries, And Shady Walks And Groves, Where, After Seven Years Spent In Silence And Meditation, A Man Might Commence A Genuine Free-thinker, And From That Time Forward, Have License To Think What He Pleased, And A Badge To Distinguish Him From Counterfeits.

Of All Men Living [priests] Are Our Greatest Enemies. If It Were Possible, They Would Extinguish The Very Light Of Nature, Turn The World Into A Dungeon, And Keep Mankind For Ever In Chains And Darkness.