Others Indeed May Talk, And

Atheism ... That Bugbear Of Women And Fools ... Is The Very Top And Perfection Of Free-thinking. It Is The Grand Arcanum To Which A True Genius Naturally Riseth, By A Certain Climax Or Gradation Of Thought, And Without Which He Can Never Possess His Soul In Absolute Liberty And Repose.

In Short, If There Were External Bodies, It Is Impossible We Should Ever Come To Know It; And If There Were Not, We Might Have The Very Same Reasons To Think There Were That We Have Now.

This Perceiving, Active Being Is What I Call Mind, Spirit, Soul, Or Myself. By Which Words I Do Not Denote Any One Of My Ideas, But A Thing Entirely Distinct From Them, Wherein They Exist, Or, Which Is The Same Thing, Whereby They Are Perceived; For The Existence Of An Idea Consists In Being Perceived.

I Do Not Deny The Existence Of Material Substance Merely Because I Have No Notion Of It, But Because The Notion Of It Is Inconsistent, Or In Other Words, Because It Is Repugnant That There Should Be A Notion Of It.

To Me It Seems That Liberty And Virtue Were Made For Each Other. If Any Man Wish To Enslave His Country, Nothing Is A Fitter Preparative Than Vice; And Nothing Leads To Vice So Surely As Irreligion.