Question with boldness even the existence of a god.

It is surely time for men to think for themselves, and to throw off the authority of names so artificially magnified.

We are not immortal ourselves, my friend; how can we expect our enjoyments to be so? We have no rose without its thorn; no pleasure without alloy. It is the law of our existence; and we must acquiesce.

Every man is under the natural duty of contributing to the necessities of the society; and this is all the laws should enforce on him.

The Gothic idea that we were to look backwards instead of forwards for the improvement of the human mind, and to recur to the annals of our ancestors for what is most perfect in government, in religion and in learning, is worthy of those bigots in religion and government by whom it has been recommended, and whose purposes it would answer. But it is not an idea which this country will endure.

There is preparing, I hope, under the auspices of heaven, a way for a total emancipation.

History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government.