A man acquainted with history may, in some respect, be said to have lived from the beginning of the world, and to have been making continual additions to his stock of knowledge in every century.
To hate, to love, to think, to feel, to see; all this is nothing but to perceive.
In all ages of the world, priests have been enemies of liberty.
The Christian religion not only was at first attended with miracles, but even at this day cannot be believed by any reasonable person without one.
Any pride or haughtiness, is displeasing to us, merely because it shocks our own pride, and leads us by sympathy into comparison, which causes the disagreeable passion of humility.
Superstition is an enemy to civil liberty.
Eloquence, at its highest pitch, leaves little room for reason or reflection, but addresses itself entirely to the desires and affections, captivating the willing hearers, and subduing their understanding.
While Newton seemed to draw off the veil from some of the mysteries of nature, he showed at the same time the imperfections of the mechanical philosophy; and thereby restored her ultimate secrets to that obscurity, in which they ever did and ever will remain.
Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principals.
No testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which it endeavors to establish.
Heaven and hell suppose two distinct species of men, the good and the bad. But the greatest part of mankind float betwixt vice and virtue.
An established government has an infinite advantage, by that very circumstance of its being established – the bulk of mankind being governed by authority, not reason, and never attributing authority to anything that has not the recommendation of antiquity.
The life of man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster.
In this sullen apathy neither true wisdom nor true happiness can be found.
In a vain man, the smallest spark may kindle into the greatest flame, because the materials are always prepared for it.
The law always limits every power it gives.
The corruption of the best things gives rise to the worst.
If God is omnipotent, omniscient and wholly good, whence evil? If God wills to prevent evil but cannot, then He is not omnipotent. If He can prevent evil but does not, then he is not good. In either case he is not God.
And though the philosopher may live remote from business, the genius of philosophy, if carefully cultivated by several, must gradually diffuse itself throughout the whole society, and bestow a similar correctness on every art and calling.
Nothing indeed can be a stronger presumption of falsehood than the approbation of the multitude.