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

Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good.

Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us.

He who dares not offend cannot be honest.

The Christian theory is little else than the idolatry of the ancient mythologists, accommodated to the purposes of power and revenue; and it yet remains to reason and philosophy to abolish the amphibious fraud.

What is it the Bible teaches us? — repine, cruelty, and murder. What is it the Testament teaches us? — to believe that the Almighty committed debauchery with a woman engaged to be married; and...

These are the times that try men’s souls.

Every religion is good that teaches man to be good; and I know of none that instructs him to be bad.

In stating these matters, I speak an open and disinterested language, dictated by no passion but that of humanity. To me, who have not only refused offers, because I thought them improper, but have declined...

Mucizenin doğanın işleyişinden tamamen bağımsız olduğunu düşünürsek, doğanın onu gerçekleştirmek için kendi işleyişinin dışına çıkmak zorunda kalacağını da kabul etmemiz gerekir; bir mucize gördüğünü söyleyen biriyle karşılaştığımızda, aklımıza yanıtı çok basit olan şu soru gelir:...

Had it been the object or the intention of Jesus Christ to establish a new religion, he would undoubtedly have written the system himself, or procured it to be written in his life time. But...

It is not then the existence or the non-existence, of the persons that I trouble myself about; it is the fable of Jesus Christ, as told in the New Testament, and the wild and visionary...

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.

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.

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....

O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not only the tyranny, butthe tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the old world is overrun with oppression.Freedom hath been hunted round the globe. Asia, and...

We must be compelled to hold this doctrine to be false, and the old and new law called the Old and new Testament, to be impositions, fables and forgeries

The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.

Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best stage, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one.

If, to expose the fraud and imposition of monarchy … to promote universal peace, civilization, and commerce, and to break the chains of political superstition, and raise degraded man to his proper rank; if these...

İnsanlığı sarsan en iğrenç kötülükler, en korkunç acımasızlıklar, en büyük sefaletler temelini vahiy ya da gökten indirilen din denilen bu olguda bulmaktadır. İnsanın yaratılışından bu yana yayılmasına çalışılan yüceliğin niteliğine karşı en onursuz inanç, ahlaka...

As to the fragments of morality that are irregularly and thinly scattered in those books [the Bible], they make no part of this pretended thing, revealed religion. They are the natural dictates of conscience, and...

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,...

Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property… Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them.

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

Nothing, they say is more certain than death, and nothing more uncertain than the time of dying

That there are men in all countries who get their living by war, and by keeping up the quarrels of Nations is as shocking as it is true…

The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. I love the man that can smile in...

With respect to the books of the New Testament, particularly such parts as tell us of the resurrection and ascension of Christ, any person who could tell a story of an apparition, or of a...

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

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.

Bize ikinci elden yazılı veya sözlü olarak iletilen düşünce ve ifadelerin bir vahiy olduğunu ileri sürmek çelişkidir. Vahiy tanımı gereği ilk ilişkiyle sınırlıdır. Bundan sonrası bu kişinin kendisine vahiy gönderildiğini ileri sürmesinden başka bir şey...

Of all the systems of religion that ever were invented, there is no more derogatory to the Almighty, more unedifiying to man, more repugnant to reason, and more contradictory to itself than this thing called...

Character is much easier kept than recovered.

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...

Any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child, cannot be true.

Whoever will take the trouble of reading the book ascribed to Isaiah, will find it one of the most wild and disorderly compositions ever put together; it has neither beginning, middle, nor end; and, except...

Akıl dediğimiz yerde bir düşünce oluşmasının olağanüstü güzelliğini kim tarif edebilir? Düşünce oluştuğu zaman, şu anda yazdığım düşünce gibi ölümsüzlük kazanma yeteneğine sahip olur, bu da insanoğlunun böyle bir özelliğe sahip tek ürünüdür.Bronz ve mermer...

It is from the Bible that man has learned cruelty, rapine, and murder; for the belief of a cruel God makes a cruel man.

Let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as we approve of monarcy, that in America the law is King. For as in absolute governments the King is...

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

But such is the irresistable nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants is the liberty of appearing.

Later times have laid all the blame upon the Goths and Vandals, but, however unwilling the partizans of the Christian system may be to believe or to acknowledge it, it is nevertheless true, that the...

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...

It is not in numbers, but in unity, that our great strength lies.

The neglected pioneer of one revolution, the honoured victim of another, brave to the point of folly, and as humane as he was brave, no man in his generation preached republican virtue in better English,...

It is the direction and not the magnitude which is to be taken into consideration.

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.

Benjamin Franklin’i bilenler zihninin daima genç, karakterinin de daima dingin olduğunu hatırlayacaktır; asla yaşlanmayan bilim, daima onun sevgilisi olmuştur. Hiçbir zaman amaçsız kalmamıştır; amaçsız kalırsak, hastanede ölümü bekleyen bir sakattan farkımız kalmaz.

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...