Government ought to be as much open to improvement as anything which appertains to man, instead of which it has been monopolized from age to age, by the most ignorant and vicious of the human race. Need we any other proof of their wretched management, than the excess of debts and taxes with which every nation groans, and the quarrels into which they have precipitated the world?"

I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life.

We do not admit the authority of the church with respect to its pretended infallibility, its manufactured miracles, its setting itself up to forgive sins. It was by propagating that belief and supporting it with fire that she kept up her temporal power.

The greatest tyrannies are always perpetuated in the name of the noblest causes.

Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us.

I detest the Bible as I detest everything that is cruel.

The Bible: a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalise mankind.