Shocking Sayings

Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do. On the one hand the standard of right and wrong, on the other…

I shall at least be not altogether useless after my death.

Without publicity, no good is permanent; under the auspices of publicity, no evil can continue.

For indeed none can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license; which never hath more scope or more indulgence than under Tyrants.

License they mean when they cry, Liberty! For who loves that, must first be wise and good.

Truth…Let her and falsehood grapple. Who ever knew Truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter?

There is no truth sure enough to justify persecution.

No man…can be so stupid to deny that all men naturally were born free, being the image and resemblance of God himself.

It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.

Milton argued that might does not make right, rulers must conform to a higher law, and, if they fail to do so, those suffering under their rule are wholly justified in rebelling against their former leaders.

I am assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London; that a young healthy child, well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food; whether stewed, roasted, baked or boiled, and I make no doubt, that it…

For first, as I have already observed, it would greatly lessen the number of papists, with whom we are yearly overrun, being the principal breeders of the nation as well as our dangerous enemies...

Those who are more thrifty may flay the carcass, the skin of which, artificially dressed, will make admirable gloves for ladies and summer boots for fine gentleman.

If Heaven had looked upon riches to be a valuable thing, it would not have given them to such a scoundrel.

Not die here in a rage, like a poisoned rat in a hole.

If I am to be a Christian, I must be a Jew.

What then shall we Christians do with this damned, rejected race of Jews? First, their synagogues or churches should be set on fire, and whatever does not burn up should be covered with earth and crushed so that no man will ever again see a stone or …

Secondly, their homes also should be razed and destroyed. For they pursue the same aims in them as in their synagogues. Instead they might be lodged under a roof or in a barn, like the gypsies, in order that they may realize that they are not masters…

Thirdly, their prayer books and Talmudic writings, which are full of idolatry, lies, curses, and blasphemy, should be taken from them.

Fourthly, their rabbis must be forbidden under threat of death to teach any more.