Anthony Collins Quotes

• We have a right to know or may lawfully know any truth. And a right to know any truth whatsoever implies a right to think freely.

  Anthony Collins

  Thinking, Atheism, May

  Anthony Collins (1713). “A discourse of free-thinking, occasion'd by the rise and growth of a sect call'd Free-thinkers. By Anthony Collins”, p.6

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• Apologys for self-evident Truths can never have any effect on those who have so little Sense as to deny them. They are the Foundation of all Reasoning, and the only just Bottom on which Men can proceed in convincing one another of the Truth: and by consequence whoever is capable of denying them, is not in a condition to be informed.

  Anthony Collins

  Men, Self, Atheism

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• I am obliged to believe certain opinions myself. No man's belief will save me except my own.

  Anthony Collins

  Believe, Men, Belief

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• By freethinking I mean the use of the understanding in endeavoring to find out the meaning of any proposition whatsoever, in considering the nature of the evidence for or against, and in judging of it according to the seeming force or weakness of the evidence.

  Anthony Collins

  Mean, Judging, Understanding

  Anthony Collins (1713). “A Discourse of Free-thinking: Occasion'd by the Rise and Growth of a Sect Call'd Free-thinkers ...”, p.10

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• Willing or preferring is the same with respect to good and evil, that judging is with respect to truth or falsehood.

  Anthony Collins

  Evil, Judging, Willing

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• Believe it, my good friend, to love truth for truth's sake is the principal part of human perfection in the world, and the seed-plot of all other virtues; and if I mistake not, you have as much of it as I ever met with in anybody.

  Anthony Collins

  Mistake, Believe, Good Friend

  Charles Bradlaugh, John Watts, Anthony Collins (2012). “Half-Hours with the Freethinkers”, p.69, The Floating Press

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• It is not enough to render things equal to the will, that they are equal or alike in themselves.

  Anthony Collins

  Enough, Equal

  Anthony Collins (1790). “A philosophical inquiry concerning human liberty”, p.32

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