There is a happiness in Deism, when rightly understood, that is not to be found inany other system of religion. All other systems have something in them that either shock our reason, or are repugnant to it, and man, if he thinks at all, must stifle his reason in order to force himself to believe them.

They took care to represent government as a thing made up of mysteries, which only themselves understood, and they hid from the understanding of the nation, the only thing that was beneficial to know, namely, that government is nothing more than a national association acting on the principles of society.

Science is the true theology.

The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is reason.

It is easy to see that when republican virtue fails, slavery ensues.

Character is much easier kept than recovered.

Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise.