Benjamin Franklin
Quotes from Benjamin Franklin
"In the Affairs of this World Men are saved, not by Faith, but
by Want of it."
"As to Jesus of Nazareth...I think the system of Morals and his
Religion, as he left them to us, the best the World ever saw or is
likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupting
Changes, and I have, with most of the present Dissenters in England,
some doubts as to his divinity."
"Lighthouses are more helpful than churches."
"When a religion is good, I conceive it will support itself;
and when it does not support itself, and God does not care to
support it, so that its professors are obliged to call for the help
of the civil power, 'tis a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad
one."
"The nearest I can make it out, 'Love your Enemies' means,
'Hate your Friends'."
"I have found Christian dogma unintelligible. Early in life I
absented myself from Christian assemblies."
"My parents had early given me religious impressions, and
brought me through my childhood piously in the dissenting [puritan]
way. But I was scarce fifteen, when, after doubting by turns of
several points, as I found them
disputed in the different books I
read, I began to doubt of Revelation itself. Some books against
Deism fell into my hands; they were said to be the substance of
sermons preached at Boyle's lectures. It happened that they wrought
an effect on me quite contrary to what was intended by them; for
the arguments of the deists, which were quoted to be refuted,
appeared to me much stronger than the refutations; in short,
I soon became a thorough deist"