Let men's minds be filled with true ideas; let their reason be
cultivated; and there will be no need of opposing to the passions,
such a feeble barrier, as the fear of gods. Men will be good, when
they are well instructed; and when they are despised for evil, or
justly rewarded for good, which they do to their fellow citizens.

In vain should we attempt to cure men of their vices, unless we
begin by curing them of their prejudices. It is only by showing
them the truth, that they will perceive their true interests,
and the real motives that ought to incline them to do good.
Instructors have long enough fixed men's eyes upon heaven; let
them now turn them upon earth. An incomprehensible theology,
ridiculous fables, impenetrable mysteries, puerile ceremonies,
are to be no longer endured. Let the human mind apply itself to
what is natural, to intelligible objects, truth, and useful knowledge.

Does it not suffice to annihilate religious prejudice, to shew,
that what is inconceivable to man, cannot be good for him?
Does it require any thing, but plain common sense, to perceive,
that a being, incompatible with the most evident notions--that
a cause continually opposed to the effects which we attribute
to it--that a being, of whom we can say nothing, without falling
into contradiction--that a being, who, far from explaining the
enigmas of the universe, only makes them more inexplicable--that
a being, whom for so many ages men have vainly addressed to obtain
their happiness, and the end of sufferings--does it require, I say,
any thing but plain, common sense, to perceive--that the idea of
such a being is an idea without model, and that he himself is merely
a phantom of the imagination? Is any thing necessary but common sense
to perceive, at least, that it is folly and madness for men to hate