Nothing but heaven is impregnable to vice.
I would give worlds, if I had them, if The Age of Reason had never been published. O Lord, help! Stay with me! It is hell to be left alone.
Youth is the seed time of good habits, as well in nations as in individuals.
The graceful pride of truth knows no extremes, and preserves, in every latitude of life, the right-angled character of man.
Lay then the axe to the root, and teach governments humanity. It is their sanguinary punishments which corrupt mankind.
The case, however, is, that the Bible will not bear examination in any part of it, which it would do if it was the Word of God. Those who most believe it are those who know least about it, and priests always take care to keep the inconsistent and contradictory parts out of sight.
Man cannot make, or invent, or contrive principles; he can only discover them; and he ought to look through the discovery to the Author.
I would not dare so dishonor my Creator’s name by attaching it to this filthy book.
They took care to represent government as a thing made up of mysteries, which only themselves understood, and they hid from the understanding of the nation, the only thing that was beneficial to know, namely, that government is nothing more than a national association acting on the principles of society.
The representative system of government is calculated to produce the wisest laws, by collecting wisdom where it can be found.
Civil rights are those which appertain to man in right of his being a member of society. Every civil right has for its foundation some natural right pre-existing in the individual, but to the enjoyment of which his individual power is not, in all cases, sufficiently competent. Of this kind are all those which relate to security and protection.
There is existing in man, a mass of sense lying in a dormant state. The construction of government ought to be such as to bring forward, by a quiet and regular operation, all that extent of capacity.
What is called a republic, is not any particular form of government... it is naturally opposed to the word monarchy, which means arbitrary power.
You cannot undermine police authority and then complain about rising crime.
A man will pass better through the world with a thousand open errors upon his back than in being detected in one sly falsehood. When one is detected, a thousand are suspected.
To possess ourselves of a clear idea of what government is, or ought to be, we must trace it to its origin.
All men can understand what representation is; and that it must necessarily include a variety of knowledge and talents.
If any generation of men ever possessed the right of dictating the mode by which the world should be governed for ever, it was the first generation that existed; and if that generation did it not, no succeeding generation can show any authority for doing it, nor can set any up.
Universal empire is the prerogative of a writer. His concerns are with all mankind, and though he cannot command their obedience,he can assign them their duty. The Republic of Letters is more ancient than monarchy, and of far higher character in the world than the vassal court of Britain.
If those to whom power is delegated do well, they will be respected; if not, they will be despised.