Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself in all cases as the ages and generations which preceded it. The vanity and presumption of governing beyond the grave is the most ridiculous and insolent of all tyrannies.

It is the duty of every man, as far as his ability extends, to detect and expose delusion and error.

The state of a king shuts him from the world, yet the business of a king requires him to know it thoroughly.

Nothing, they say is more certain than death, and nothing more uncertain than the time of dying

Man must go back to nature for information.

Every science has for its basis a system of principles as fixed and unalterable as those by which the universe is regulated and governed. Man cannot make principles; he can only discover them.

It is an affront to treat falsehood with complaisance.