I should . . . prefer swallowing one incomprehensibility rather than two. It requires one effort only to admit the single incomprehensibility of matter endowed with thought, and two to believe, first that of an existence called spirit, of which we have neither evidence nor idea, and then secondly how that spirit, which has neither extension nor solidity, can put material organs into motion.

Wine brightens the life and thinking of anyone

The clergy converted the simple teachings of Jesus into an engine for enslaving mankind and adulterated by artificial constructions into a contrivance to filch wealth and power to themselves...these clergy, in fact, constitute the real Anti-Christ.

By oft repeating an untruth, men come to believe it themselves.

It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good.

The cost of freedom is eternal vigilance

The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest.