Julien Offray de La Mettrie

"Truth is simply what the senses and reason agree upon consistently."

"Knowledge advances only through careful observation of physical phenomena."

"The mind's power is directly proportional to the body's health and vigor."

"Illness clouds thought as surely as dust clouds a mirror."

"The brain is no more mysterious than the liver; merely more complex."

"Spirit is but the word we use for mechanisms we do not yet understand."

"As matter organizes itself, consciousness inevitably emerges."

"The self is an illusion created by the brain's mechanical processes."

"Identity persists only so long as the material continuity persists."

"What we call freedom is the machine operating without external constraint."

"Determinism and freedom are reconciled when we understand mechanism."

"The pursuit of happiness is man's only rational purpose."

"Satisfaction comes from gratifying each appetite in proper measure."

"Excess in pleasure is itself a form of pain, mechanically speaking."

"The educated man is he whose machine operates most efficiently."

"Wisdom consists in knowing the limits of one's mechanical capabilities."

"Folly is the pretense to powers the machine does not possess."

"The body is a machine; understand its springs and you understand life itself."

"Man is merely matter organized in a particular way; nothing more, nothing less."

"To think is to be; but to feel is truly to live."

"We are nothing but the sum of our sensations and experiences."

"The soul is but a word without a body to give it meaning."

"Education should cultivate the senses as much as the intellect."

"Nature abhors not complexity, but rather celebrates it in every living thing."

"Pleasure and pain are the only true measures of good and evil."

"The greatest deception is believing in things we cannot touch or measure."

"Liberty is the natural state of a thinking being; slavery is an aberration."

"Music speaks to the body before it speaks to the mind."

"In the study of nature lies the study of ourselves."

"Atheism is merely the courage to accept what reason reveals."