“Tis not unreasonable for me to prefer the destruction of the whole world to the scratching of my finger.”

no testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more miraculous, than the fact, which it endeavors to establish.

The Crusades – the most signal and most durable monument of human folly that has yet appeared in any age or nation.

Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions.

Men’s views of things are the result of their understanding alone. Their conduct is regulated by their understanding, their temper, and their passions.

There is nothing to be learnt from a Professor, which is not to be met with in Books.

It is, therefore, a just political maxim, that every man must be supposed a knave.

It is, therefore, a just political maxim, that every man must be supposed a knave.

Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.

But the life of a man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster.

To be a philosophical Sceptic is the first and most essential step towards being a sound, believing Christian.

The truth springs from arguments amongst friends.

When men are most sure and arrogant they are commonly most mistaken, giving views to passion without that proper deliberation which alone can secure them from the grossest absurdities.

Any pride or haughtiness, is displeasing to us, merely because it shocks our own pride, and leads us by sympathy into comparison, which causes the disagreeable passion of humility.

How can we satisfy ourselves without going on in infinitum? And, after all, what satisfaction is there in that infinite progression?

What a peculiar privilege has this little agitation of the brain which we call ‘thought’

It is an absurdity to believe that the Deity has human passions, and one of the lowest of human passions, a restless appetite for applause

I have a premonition that will not leave me: as it goes with Israel so will it go with all of us. Should Israel perish, the holocaust will be upon us.

The symbol of all art is the Prism. The goal is unrealism. The method is destructive. To break up the white light of objective realism, into the secret glories which it contains.

Death is but an aspect of life, and the destruction of one material form is but a prelude to building up of another.

Either way, change will come. It could be bloody, or it could be beautiful. It depends on us.

Making bombs will only destroy us. It doesn’t matter whether we use them or not. They will destroy us either way.

Chaos breeds geniuses. It offers a man something to be a genius about.

When did our need to overpower one another, outgrow our desire to love?

I cause destruction everywhere I go I’m a wildfire gentle is not my nature.