[The monks'] credulity debased and vitiated the faculties of the mind: they corrupted the evidence of history; and superstition gradually extinguished the hostile light of philosophy and science.

[The monks'] minds were inaccessible to reason or mercy . . .

In the end, they wanted security more than they wanted freedom.

The possession and the enjoyment of property are the pledges which bind a civilised people to an improved country.

The simple circumstantial narrative (did such a narrative exist) of the ruin of a single town, of the misfortunes of a single family, might exhibit an interesting and instructive picture of human manners; but the tedious repetition of vague and declamatory complaints would fatigue the attention of the most patient reader.

The land was then covered with morasses and forests, which spread to a boundless extent, whenever man has ceased to exercise his dominion over the earth.

In the productions of the mind, as in those of the soil, the gifts of nature are excelled by industry and skill . . .