The Chief Element Of Happiness Is This:

Almost All Christians Being Wretchedly Enslaved To Blindness And Ignorance, Which The Priests Are So Far From Preventing Or Removing, That They Blacken The Darkness, And Promote The Delusion: Wisely Foreseeing That The People (like Cows, Which Never Give Down Their Milk So Well As When They Are Gently Stroked), Would Part With Less If They Knew More.

It's The Generally Accepted Privilege Of Theologians To Stretch The Heavens, That Is The Scriptures, Like Tanners With A Hide.

A Good Portion Of Speaking Will Consist In Knowing How To Lie.

There Are Some Whose Only Reason For Inciting War Is To Use It As A Means To Exercise Their Tyranny Over Their Subjects More Easily. For In Times Of Peace The Authority Of The Assembly, The Dignity Of The Magistrates, The Force Of The Laws Stand In The Way To Some Extent Of The Ruler Doing What He Likes. But Once War Is Declared Then The Whole Business Of State Is Subject To The Will Of A Few ... They Demand As Much Money As They Like. Why Say More?

It Hardly Needs Explaining At Length, I Think, How Much Authority Or Beauty Is Added To Style By The Timely Use Of Proverbs. In The First Place Who Does Not See What Dignity They Confer On Style By Their Antiquity Alone?... And So To Interweave Adages Deftly And Appropriately Is To Make The Language As A Whole Glitter With Sparkles From Antiquity, Please Us With The Colours Of The Art Of Rhetoric, Gleam With Jewel-like Words Of Wisdom, And Charm Us With Titbits Of Wit And Humour.