The World Would Be Astonished If It

We Often Hear The Teachers Of All Creeds Lamenting The Difficulty Of Keeping Up In The Minds Of Believers A Lively Apprehension Of The Truth Which They Nominally Recognize, So That It May Penetrate The Feelings, And Acquire A Real Mastery Over The Conduct.... When It Has Come To Be A Hereditary Creed, And To Be Received Passively, Not Actively ... There Is A Progressive Tendency To Forget All Of The Belief Except The Formularies ... Until It Almost Ceases To Connect Itself At All With The Inner Life Of The Human Being.

So Natural To Mankind Is Intolerance ... That Religious Freedom Has Hardly Anywhere Been Practically Realized.

If It Were Felt That The Free Development Of Individuality Is One Of The Leading Essentials Of Well-being; That It Is Not Only A Coordinate Element With All That Is Designated By The Terms Civilisation, Instruction, Education, Culture, But Is Itself A Necessary Part And Condition Of All Those Things; There Would Be No Danger That Liberty Should Be Undervalued.

On Religion In Particular, The Time Appears To Me To Have Come, When It Is A Duty Of All Who, Being Qualified In Point Of Knowledge, Have, On Mature Consideration, Satisfied Themselves That The Current Opinions Are Not Only False, But Hurtful, To Make Their Dissent Known.

What Citizens Of A Free Country Would Listen To Any Offers Of Good And Skillful Administration In Return For The Abdication Of Freedom?