To say that authority, whether secular or religious, supplies no ground for morality is not to deny the obvious fact that it supplies a sanction.
To say that authority, ...
Quotes from the same author
True happiness arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of oneself, and in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions.
He only is a great man who can neglect the applause of the multitude and enjoy himself independent of its favor.
Let freedom never perish in your hands.
Young men soon give, and soon forget, affronts; old age is slow in both.
An honest private man often grows cruel and abandoned when converted into an absolute prince. Give a man power of doing what he pleases with impunity, you extinguish his fear, and consequently overturn in him one of the great pillars of morality.