Consider, I pray, whether you are not renouncing all shame and sincerity to advance such principles. Because a comet appears in a group of stars which the ancients thought fit to call the Virgin, therefore, shall our women be barren, or have frequent miscarriages, or die old maids. I know of nothing which hangs so ill together! To offer such things in seriousness, shows the greatest contempt of mankind, and the most scandalous lying impunity.

The antiquity and general acceptance of an opinion is not assurance of its truth.

In matters of religion, it is very easy to deceive a man and very hard to undeceive him.

I know too much to be a sceptic and too little to be a dogmatist.

It is pure illusion to think that an opinion which passes down from century to century, from generation to generation, may not be entirely false.

One must be stark mad, to believe that mankind can subsist without magistrates.

It is thus tolerance that is the source of peace, and intolerance that is the source of disorder and squabbling.