The wicked can have only accomplices, the voluptuous have companions in debauchery, self-seekers have associates, the politic assemble the factions, the typical idler has connections, princes have courtiers. Only the virtuous have friends.

Religion may be purified. This great work was begun two hundred years ago: but men can only bear light to come in upon them by degrees.

God created sex. Priests created marriage.

Philosopher: A lover of wisdom, which is to say, Truth.

It has taken seas of blood to drown the idol of despotism, but the English do not think they bought their laws too dearly.

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him; let us worship God through Jesus if we must - if ignorance has so far prevailed that this name can still be spoken in all seriousness without being taken as a synonym for rapine and carnage. Every sensible man, every honourable man, must hold the Christian sect in horror.

The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbours, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all.