In every country and every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own. It is easier to acquire wealth and power by this combination than by deserving them, and to effect this, they have perverted the purest religion ever preached to man into mystery and jargon, unintelligible to all mankind, and therefore the safer for their purposes.

I cannot live without books: but fewer will suffice where amusement, and not use, is the only future object.

My affections were first for my own country, then, generally, for all mankind

Never use two words when one will do.

For if one link in nature's chain might be lost, another might be lost, until the whole of things will vanish by piecemeal.

I am tired of a life of contention, and of being the personal object for the hatred of every man, who hates the present state of things.

The majority, oppressing an individual, is guilty of a crime, abuses its strength, and by acting on the law of the strongest breaks up the foundations of society.