The only idea man can affix to the name of God is that of a first cause, the cause of all things. And incomprehensible and difficult as it is for a m… - Thomas Paine

The whole world might be divided into two parts, numerically, but not as to moral character; and, therefore, the metaphor of dividing them, as sheep and goats can be divided, whose difference is marked by their external figure, is absurd. [...] There are some exceedingly good; others exceedingly wicked. There is another description of men who cannot be ranked with either the one or the other. They belong neither to the sheep nor the goats; and there is still another description of them, who are so very insignificant both in character and conduct, as not to be worth the trouble of damning or saving, or of raising from the dead.

Revelation is a communication of something which the person to whom that thing is revealed did not know before. For if I have done a thing, or seen it done, it needs no revelation to tell me I have done it, or seen it, nor to enable me to tell it, or to write it.

It is pleasant to observe by what regular gradation we surmount the force of local prejudice as we enlarge our acquaintance with the world.