The man who says to me, “Believe as I do, or God will damn you,” will presently say, “Believe as I do, or I shall assassinate you.”
“On Superstition” in Toleration and Other Essays
God is always on the side of the heaviest battalions.
letter to M. le Riche, February 6, 1770
If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.
as quoted in Haught, 2000 Years of Disbelief, p. 54
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.
in a letter dated November 1, 1770
Of all religions, the Christian is without doubt the one which should inspire tolerance the most, although up to now the Christians have been the most intolerant of all men.
attributed to
What is perhaps most respectable about the Romans is that for nine hundred years they persecuted no one for their opinions. They cannot be reproached [like the Greeks] for hemlock. They were the most universally tolerant people. These wise conquerors besieged a city; they prayed to the gods of the city to be kind enough to pass over their camp. When it was taken, they went to sacrifice in the temple of the conquered. That is how they became worthy of commanding so many nations.
“On the Romans” in God and Human Beings, p. 51
Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is a ridiculous one.
letter to Frederick William, November 28, 1770 from Ferney