Oh mortal man, is there anything you cannot be made to believe?

When man lives under government, he is fallen, his worth is gone, and his nature tarnished.

Nothing would be more profitable to us than a right history of mankind.

Morality will perform all this; and Morality is the fruit of Illumination.

Let this circumstance of our constitution therefore be directed to this noble purpose, and then all the objections urged against it by jealous tyranny and affrighted superstition will vanish.

It was the full conviction of this, and of what could be done, if every man were placed in the office for which he was fitted by nature and a proper education, which first suggested to me the plan of Illumination.