Time makes more converts than reason.

Is it not a species of blasphemy to call the New Testament revealed religion, when we see in it such contradictions and absurdities.

That God cannot lie, is no advantage to your argument, because it is no proof that priests can not, or that the Bible does not.

Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.

We can only reason from what is; we can reason on actualities, but not on possibilities.

Now, if the writers of these four books [Gospels] had gone into a court of justice to prove an alibi, (for it is of the nature of an alibi that is here attempted to be proved, namely, the absence of a dead body by supernatural means,) and had they given their evidence in the same...

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.

To establish any mode to abolish war, however advantageous it might be to Nations, would be to take from such Government the most lucrative of its branches.

But the christian story of God the Father putting his son to death, or employing people to do it, (for that is the plain language of the story,) cannot be told by a parent to a child; and to tell him that it was done to make mankind happier and better, is making the story...

The Christian religion is a parody on the worship of the sun, in which they put a man called Christ in the place of the sun, and pay him the adoration originally payed to the sun.

Such is the passage, x. 14, where, after giving an account that the sun stood still upon Gibeon, and the moon in the valley of Ajalon, at the command of Joshua, (a tale only fit to amuse children). This tale of the sun standing still upon Motint Gibeon, and the moon in the valley of...

I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy.

Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.

Those who want to reap the benefits of this great nation must bear the fatigue of supporting it.

It is painful to behold a man employing his talents to corrupt himself. Nature has been kinder to Mr. Burke than he is to her. He is not affected by the reality of distress touching his heart, but by the showy resemblance of it striking his imagination. He pities the plumage, but forgets the dying...

If there is a country in the world where concord, according to common calculation, would be least expected, it is America. Made up as it is of people from different nations, accustomed to different forms and habits of government, speaking different languages, and more different in their modes of worship, it would appear that the...

Ignorance is of a peculiar nature; once dispelled, it is impossible to reestablish it. It is not originally a thing of itself, but is only the absence of knowledge; and though man may be kept ignorant, he cannot be made ignorant.

I have furnished myself with a Bible and Testament; and I can say also that I have found them to be much worse books than I had conceived. If I have erred in any thing, in the former part of the Age of Reason, it has been by speaking better of some parts than they...

We have it in our power to begin the world over again.

Some Christians pretend that Christianity was not established by the sword; but of what period of time do they speak? It was impossible that twelve men could begin with the sword: they had not the power; but no sooner were the professors of Christianity sufficiently powerful to employ the sword than they did so, and...

What are the present governments of Europe, but a scene of iniquity and oppression? What is that of England? Do not its own inhabitants say, It is a market where every man has his price, and where corruption is common traffic, at the expense of a deluded people? No wonder, then, that the French Revolution...

And as a man, who is attached to a prostitute, is unfitted to choose or judge of a wife, so any prepossession in favour of a rotten constitution of government will disable us from discerning a good one.

In the early ages of the world, according to the scripture chronology, there were no kings; the consequence of which was there were no wars; it is the pride of kings which throws mankind into confusion.

That government is best which governs least.

One of the strongest natural proofs of the folly of hereditary right in kings, is, that nature disapproves it, otherwise, she would not so frequently turn it into ridicule by giving mankind an ass for a lion.

People in general know not what wickedness there is in this pretended word of God. Brought up in habits of superstition, they take it for granted that the Bible is true, and that it is good; they permit themselves not to doubt of it, and they carry the ideas they form of the benevolence of...

I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace.

I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.

İnsan, Tanrı’yı akıl yürütme yoluyla keşfedebilir.

That which we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly.

Yalan söylemek kolaydır ama devam ettirmek zordur.

Moloch’tan modern Tanrı iradesi anlayışına kadar geçen süre içinde ortaya çıkan bozulmalar ve eski mitolojilerdeki insan kurban edilmesinden yaratıcıya adanan Hıristiyan kurbanlarına kadar tüm uygulamalar vahiy dini adı verilen sistemi kabul etmekle ortaya çıkmıştır. Tüm bu kötülük ve dayatmaları engellemenin en etkili yolu, Yaratılışın kitabındaki mesajlardan başkasını kabul etmemek ve Yaratılışı Tanrı’nın geçmiş ya da...

Hıristiyan kilisesi adı verilen kuramın pagan mitolojisinin kuyruğuna takılıp yeşerdiğini gözlemlemek ilgi çekicidir.

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.

Is it more probable that nature should go out of her course or that a man should tell a lie? We have never seen, in our time, nature go out of her course. But we have good reason to believe that millions of lies have been told in the same time. It is therefore at...

I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me...

Let them call me a rebel and welcome. I feel no concern from it. But should I suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul.

Tüm k inatı düzenleyen ve yöneten ilkeler gibi her bilimin de sabit ve değiştirilemez ilkeleri vardır. İnsan bu ilkeleri yapamaz ancak onları keşfedebilir.

Yaratılan her şey bu bağlamda bir gizemse, bu kelime karanlığın aydınlığın yerine kullanılamayacağı gibi ahlaki gerçek yerine kullanılamaz. İnandığımız Tanrı, karanlığın ya da gizemin değil gerçeğin Tanrı’sıdır. Gizem gerçeğin karşıtıdır. Gizem, gerçeği karanlığa iten, onu bozan, insanın yarattığı bir sistir. Gerçek hiçbir zaman gizemle sarmalanamaz; eğer sarmalanırsa bu gerçeğin değil karşıtının suçudur.

İnsanoğlunun Tanrı adına yüklediği tek anlam, ilk neden, tüm şeylerin nedeni olmasıdır. İlk nedenin ne olduğunu anlamanın kavranamaz ölçüde güç olması ve ona inanmamanın on kat kadar daha zor olması nedeniyle insanoğlu inanma noktasına varır. Tanımının ötesinde uzayın sonsuz olduğunu algılamak zordur; ama bir sonu olduğunu düşünebilmek daha da zordur. Zaman dediğimiz sonsuzluğu kavramak insan...

Tek Tanrı’ya inanırım, başka bir şeye değil; bu yaşamdan sonra da mutluluk olmasını umut ederim.

Every child born in the world must be considered as deriving its existence from God. The world is this new to him as it was to the first that existed, and his natural right in it is of the same kind.

Mankind being originally equals in the order of creation, the equality could only be destroyed by some subsequent circumstance; the distinctions of rich, and poor, may in a great measure be accounted for, and that without having recourse to the harsh, ill-sounding names of oppression and avarice.

It is an affront to treat falsehood with complaisance.

There are two distinct classes of what are called thoughts: those that we produce in ourselves by reflection and the act of thinking and those that bolt into the mind of their own accord.

War involves in its progress such a train of unforeseen circumstances that no human wisdom can calculate the end; it has but one thing certain, and that is to increase taxes.

He that rebels against reason is a real rebel, but he that in defence of reason rebels against tyranny has a better title to Defender of the Faith, than George the Third.

Titles are but nicknames, and every nickname is a title.

Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law.

The whole religious complexion of the modern world is due to the absence from Jerusalem of a lunatic asylum.