“For thus it is better secured from the oppression of the ruling powers, and because this secrecy gives a greater zest to the whole.”

I should have been keenly occupied, and the founding of an order would have never come into my head.

The head of every family will be what Abraham was, the patriarch

Our secret association works in a way that nothing can withstand, and man shall soon be free and happy.

If a writer publishes any thing that attracts notice, and is in itself just, but does not accord with our plan

We must win the common people in every corner.

And it will fire them the more, and cause them to work for us with zeal, without knowing that they do so.

The human race will then become one family, and the world will be the dwelling of Rational Men.

A Literary Society is the most proper form for the introduction of our Order into any state where we are yet strangers.

The revolution which is about to break will be sterile if it is not complete.

But I have contrived an explanation which has every advantage; is inviting to christians of every communion; gradually frees them from all religious prejudices

This is the great object held out by this association; and the means of attaining it is illumination, enlightening the understanding by the sun of reason which will dispell the clouds of superstition and of prejudice.

It was the full conviction of this, and of what could be done,

Let it never appear in any place in its own name but always covered by another name and another occupation.

Salvation does not lie where strong thrones are defended by swords, where the smoke of censers ascend to heaven or where thousands of strong men pace the rich fields of harvest.

I am proud to be known to the world as the founder of the Illuminati.

And of all illumination which human reason can give, none is comparable to the discovery of what we are, our nature, our obligations, what happiness we are capable of, and what are the means of attaining it.

The weaker the partner is viewed by the Muslims, then the greater the anger which they express. And this anger is often carefully staged.

If the money wasted on arms could be used to help the less developed nations, that would probably be a greater blow against the Communist danger than anything else.

What the advocates of these tax rates fail to realize is that the greater part of the incomes taxed away would not have been consumed but saved and invested.

The greater the amount of capital invested per head of the worker, the more and better goods can be produced and consumed.

The wise only possess ideas; the greater part of mankind are possessed by them.

The forces that unite us are intrinsic and greater than the superimposed influences that keep us apart.

One must do violence to the object of one’s desire; when it surrenders, the pleasure is greater.

You are observed with interest but you do not observe with interest – if you do, you will become less enviable. In this respect the envied are like bureaucrats; the more impersonal they are, the greater the illusion (for themselves and for others) of their power.