1. “Properly speaking, history is nothing but the crimes and misfortunes of the human race.”
2. “It is a pure illusion to think that an opinion that passes down from century, from generation to generation, may not be entirely false.”
3. “The antiquity and general acceptance of an opinion is not assurance of its truth.”
4. “It is a common prejudice that induces us to believe that athesism is a fearful state.”
5. “If an historian were to relate truthfully all the crimes, weaknesses and disorders of mankind, his readers would take his work for satire rather than history.”
6. “It is thus tolerance that is aptly applying a thought found in a book, than in being the first author of the thought.”
7. “The furnace of affection refines us from earthly drossiness and softens us for the impression of God’s own stamp.”
8. “There is no less wit nor less invention in applying rightly a thought one finds in a book, than in being the first author of that thought.”
9. “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 honestly and give everyone is due.”
10. “In the matters of religion, it is very hard to deceive a man, and very hard to undeceive him.”
