There is not less wit nor invention in applying rightly a thought one finds in a book, than in being the first author of that thought. Cardinal du Pe….

The movement of comets is part of the ordinary works of nature which, without regard to the happiness or misery of mankind, are transported from one ….

I am a good Protestant, and in the full sense of the term, for from the bottom of my soul, I protest against everything that is said, and everything ….

The antiquity and general acceptance of an opinion is not assurance of its truth..

If an historian were to relate truthfully all the crimes, weaknesses, and disorders of mankind, his readers would take his work for satire rather tha….

It is only common prejudice that induces us to believe that atheism is a fearful state..

The furnace of affliction refines us from earthly drossiness, and softens us for the impression of God's own stamp..

Do you doubt that the least effects of nature were not used as marks of the wrath of heaven? It was to the interest of pontiffs, priests, and augurs,….

So that, were it the purpose of God to produce comets as signs of his wrath it would be true to say that he is quickening a false devotion almost all….

Consider, I pray, whether you are not renouncing all shame and sincerity to advance such principles. Because a comet appears in a group of stars whic….

Properly speaking, history is nothing but the crimes and misfortunes of the human race..

Compulsion in the literal Sense is maliciously misrepresented, by supposing it authorizes Violences committed against the Truth. The Answer to this; ….

No nations are more warlike than those which profess Christianity..

It has been asserted, that a moral Atheist would be a monster beyond the power of nature to create: I reply, that it is not more strange for an Athei….

In matters of religion, it is very easy to deceive a man and very hard to undeceive him..

It is pure illusion to think that an opinion which passes down from century to century, from generation to generation, may not be entirely false..

Philosophy can be compared to some powders that are so corrosive that, after they have eaten away the infected flesh of a wound, they then devour the….

There was no other God, religion, or lawful magistracy, than conscience, which teaches all men the precepts of Justice, to do no injury, to live hone….

I get up and retire when I wish. I go out if I wish and I do not go out if I do not desire to do so, except for the two days on which I give lectures..

One must be stark mad, to believe that mankind can subsist without magistrates..

I mention this only to shew that the citations of the most judicious authors frequently deceive us, and consequently that prudence obliges us to exam….