Baron d'Holbach Quotes
Paul-Henri Thiry, Baron d'Holbach, was a German-born French philosopher who became one of the most outspoken atheist and materialist voices of the high Enlightenment. His salon in Paris gathered Diderot, Rousseau, Hume, Adam Smith, and a wide circle of philosophes, while his anonymous works, including The System of Nature and Good Sense, defended a thoroughgoing naturalism in which human beings are wholly part of nature and religious belief is a product of ignorance and fear. The quotes below are attributed to Baron d'Holbach, organized by topic.
Browse Baron d'Holbach by topic
Baron d'Holbach on God
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Attributed to Baron d'Holbach:
“Theology is but the ignorance of natural causes reduced to a system.”
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Attributed to Baron d'Holbach:
“If we go back to the beginning, we shall always find that ignorance and fear created the gods.”
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Attributed to Baron d'Holbach:
“All errors are religious errors; all crimes are crimes of religion or against it.”
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“Good Sense without God, or, Freethoughts Opposed to Supernatural Ideas (London: W. Stewart & Co., ca. 1900) ( Project Gutenberg e-text ), preface”
When we examine the opinions of men, we find that nothing is more uncommon, than common sense; or, in other words, they lack judgment to discover plain truths, or to reject absurdities, and palpable contradictions. -
“Savage and furious nations, perpetually at war, adore, under diverse names, some God, conformable to their ideas, that is to say, cruel, carnivorous, selfish, blood-thirsty.”
ibid. , preface -
“Pascal proves nothing in favour of Religion, unless that a man of genius may be foolish on some subjects, and is but a child, when he is weak enough to listen to his prejudices.”
ibid. , chap. 167 -
“the apostles, and especially their successors in the sacred ministry have, in preaching their gospel, brought on the world troubles and divisions unknown in all other preceding religions.”
Ecce Homo -
“All children are born Atheists; they have no idea of God.”
ibid. , chap. 30
Baron d'Holbach on Justice
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“We are all just cogs in a machine , doing what we were always meant to do, with no actual volition . (1770)”
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Baron d'Holbach on Knowledge
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“It is thus superstition infatuates man from his infancy, fills him with vanity, and enslaves him with fanaticism.”
Samuel Wilkinson, trans., The System of Nature ( Project Gutenberg e-text ), vol. 1, chap. IX | Date and place of publication unknown. Original publication in French, 1770, as La Système de la nature , under the name of Jean Baptiste de Mirabaud . -
“If the ignorance of nature gave birth to such a variety of gods, the knowledge of this nature is calculated to destroy them.”
Samuel Wilkinson, trans., The System of Nature ( Project Gutenberg e-text ), vol. 2, chap. I | Date and place of publication unknown. Original publication in French, 1770, as La Système de la nature , under the name of Jean Baptiste de Mirabaud . -
“When we examine the opinions of men, we find that nothing is more uncommon, than common sense; or, in other words, they lack judgment to discover plain truths, or to reject absurdities, and palpable contradictions.”
Good Sense without God, or, Freethoughts Opposed to Supernatural Ideas (London: W. Stewart & Co., ca. 1900) ( Project Gutenberg e-text ), preface | Translator unknown. Original publication in French at Amsterdam, 1772, as Le bon sens ("Common Sense"), and often attributed to John Meslier . -
“Translator unknown. Original publication in French at Amsterdam, 1772, as Le bon sens ("Common Sense"), and often attributed to John Meslier .”
When we examine the opinions of men, we find that nothing is more uncommon, than common sense; or, in other words, they lack judgment to discover plain truths, or to reject absurdities, and palpable contradictions.
Baron d'Holbach on Nature
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Attributed to Baron d'Holbach:
“Nature is the cause of all things, and all things are governed by necessity.”
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Attributed to Baron d'Holbach:
“Man is born neither good nor wicked; education makes him so.”
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“Samuel Wilkinson, trans., The System of Nature ( Project Gutenberg e-text ), vol. 1, chap. IX”
It is thus superstition infatuates man from his infancy, fills him with vanity, and enslaves him with fanaticism. -
“Date and place of publication unknown. Original publication in French, 1770, as La Système de la nature , under the name of Jean Baptiste de Mirabaud .”
It is thus superstition infatuates man from his infancy, fills him with vanity, and enslaves him with fanaticism. -
“Samuel Wilkinson, trans., The System of Nature ( Project Gutenberg e-text ), vol. 2, chap. I”
If the ignorance of nature gave birth to such a variety of gods, the knowledge of this nature is calculated to destroy them. -
“Date and place of publication unknown. Original publication in French, 1770, as La Système de la nature , under the name of Jean Baptiste de Mirabaud .”
If the ignorance of nature gave birth to such a variety of gods, the knowledge of this nature is calculated to destroy them. -
“To wonder at the order of nature, is to wonder that any thing can exist; it is to be surprised at one's own existence.”
Good Sense, or Natural Ideas vs. Supernatural -
“Good Sense, or Natural Ideas vs. Supernatural”
Wikiquote
Baron d'Holbach on Politics
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“The preacher recommended peace and concord; dispositions necessary to a new born, weak, and persecuted sect; but this necessity ceased when this sect had attained strength enough to dictate the law.”
Ecce Homo
Baron d'Holbach on Time
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“the miracles of the messiah were calculated to convince those only who did not [Pg 82]see them. Thus it is, that these miracles are believed at present by people who would not credit those performed in their presence.”
Ecce Homo -
“Ecce Homo, A Critical Inquiry into the History of Jesus of Nazareth”
Wikiquote