All the tales of miracles, with which the Old and New Testament are filled, are fit only for impostors to preach and fools to believe.

It is from our enemies that we often gain excellent maxims, and are frequently surprised into reason by their mistakes.

The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which other rights are protected. To take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery, for slavery consists in being subject to the will of another, and he that has not a vote in the election of representatives is in this case.

He, who survives his reputation, lives out of despite himself, like a man listening to his own reproach.

The more acquisitions the government makes abroad, the more taxes the people have to pay at home.

The intellectual part of religion is a private affair between every man and his Maker, and in which no third party has any right to interfere. The practical part consists in our doing good to each other. But since religion has been made into a trade, the practical part has been made to consist of ceremonies performed by men called priests ... By devices of this kind true religion has been banished, and such means have been found out to extract money, even from the pockets of the poor, instead of contributing to their relief.

Politics and self-interest have been so uniformly connected, that the world, from being so often deceived, has a right to be suspicious of public characters.