Paul-Henri Thiry Holbach

"The mind is everything. What you think, you become."

"Believe you can and you're halfway there."

"The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be."

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."

"The human spirit is stronger than anything that can happen to it."

"To love is to receive a glimpse of heaven."

"He who conquers himself is greater than he who conquers a thousand men in battle."

"Man is unhappy because he is ignorant of nature, and because he has been taught to fear the being who created him."

"Ignorance is the primary source of all misery. Knowledge alone can liberate us from the chains of superstition."

"The greatest evils that afflict our species spring from the abuse of authority and the reign of priests."

"If there is a God who loves mankind, he would prefer the company of those who doubt thoughtfully to those who believe blindly."

"Nature shows us that strength comes not from rigid dogma but from flexibility and adaptation."

"The chains that bind us most securely are those we cannot see—the chains of false beliefs."

"Man's wretchedness arises not from his passions but from his ignorance of how to govern them rationally."

"True peace cannot exist where superstition rules the human mind."

"To know oneself is the beginning of all wisdom; to doubt oneself is the beginning of truth."

"The priest thrives on human fear; the philosopher thrives on human reason."

"We are born into a world of illusions, and most never awaken to reality."

"Education is the only true revolution that can transform mankind without bloodshed."

"Nature asks nothing of us but understanding; man asks everything of us but understanding."

"The happiness you seek externally will never compare to the contentment found in the pursuit of knowledge."

"Those who fear questions fear the answers that might change them."

"All moral systems rest upon the foundation of self-interest properly understood."

"The universe operates by natural laws, not by divine intervention or priestly whim."

"What we call virtue is merely enlightened self-interest applied to society."

"The imagination, when untethered from superstition, becomes humanity's greatest tool for progress."

"We must distinguish between the God of nature and the God of churches—they are entirely different beings."

"Man's capacity for happiness is limited only by his capacity for understanding."

"To be free, one must first be willing to think freely."

"The greatest tyranny is that which makes us our own oppressors through false belief."