It is a fraud of the Christian system to call the sciences human invention; it is only the application of them that is human.

I draw my idea of the form of government from a principle in nature, which no art can overturn, viz. that the more simple any thing is, the less liable it is to be disordered; and the easier repaired when disordered.

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.

Nothing but heaven is impregnable to vice.

Reason and Ignorance, the opposites of each other, influence the great bulk of mankind. If either of these can be rendered sufficiently extensive in a country, the machinery of Government goes easily on. Reason obeys itself; and Ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.

Every Tory is a coward; for servile, slavish, self-interested fear is the foundation of Toryism; and a man under such influence, though he may be cruel, never can be brave.

I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace.