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. |
Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man |
But such is the nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants is the liberty of appearing irresistible |
But there is not a passage in the Old Testament that speaks of a person, who, after being crucified, dead, and buried, should rise from the dead, and ascend into heaven |
Calvinism is the belief (1) That there are three Gods (2) That good works, or the love of our neighbor are nothing (3) That faith is every thing, and the more incomprehensible the proposition, the more merit in its faith (4) That reason in religion |
Character is much easier kept than recovered. |
Every national church or religion has established itself by pretending some special mission from God - as if the way to God was not open to every man alike |
Every religion is good that teaches man to be good; and I know of none that instructs him to be bad. |
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. |
For freemen like brothers agree; With one spirit endured, they one friendship pursued, And their temple was Liberty Tree |
For my own part, my belief in the perfection of the Deity will not permit me to believe that a book so manifestly obscure, disorderly, and contradictory can be His work |
From such beginnings of governments, what could be expected, but a continual system of war and extortion? |
Give to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself - that is my doctrine |
Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one. |
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 bird. |