Politics, like religion, hold up the torches of martyrdom to the reformers of error.

If by religion we are to understand sectarian dogmas, in which no two of them agree, then your exclamation on that hypothesis is just, "that this would be the best of worlds if there were no religion in it.

Christian creeds and doctrines, the clergy's own fatal inventions, through all the ages has made of Christendom a slaughterhouse, and divided it into sects of inextinguishable hatred for one another.

The merchants will manage [commerce] the better, the more they are left free to manage for themselves.

The law of self-preservation is higher than written law.

Circumstances sometimes require, that rights the most unquestionable should be advanced with delicacy.

Politics is such a torment that I advise everyone I love not to mix with it.