John Toland

Quotes

• “If we make a just computation, and take in the primitive martyrs with the Prophets and Apostles themselves, the professed defenders of Truth, only for Truth's sake, will be found to be a small handful with respect to the numerous partisans of error.”
• “Such is the deplorable condition of our age, that a man dares not openly and directly own what he thinks of divine matters, though it be never so true and beneficial, if it but very slightly differs from what is received by any party, or that is established by law.”
• “That the sacred name of religion which sounds nothing but sanctity, peace and integrity should be so universally abused to patronize ambition, impiety and contention! And that what is our highest interest perfectly to understand, should (for reasons afterward to be laid open) both be maintained to be obscure, and very industriously made so!”
• “Nay, it has come to this, that Truth meets no where with stronger opposition, than from many of those that raise the loudest cry about it, and would be taken for no less than the only dispensers of the favors and oracles of Heaven. If any has the firmness to touch the minutest thing that brings them Gain or Credit, he's presently pursued with the hue and cry of Heresy.”
• “I hope to make it appear, that the use of reason in religion is not so dangerous as commonly represented.”
• “I hold nothing as an article of my Religion, but what the highest evidence forced me to embrace.”

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Key facts

Born

( 1670-11-30 ) 30 November 1670, Ardagh, County Donegal , Ireland

Died

11 March 1722 (1722-03-11) (aged 51), Putney , Surrey, England

Other names

Janus Junius Toland, Seán Ó Tuathaláin, Eoghan na leabhar (John of the books)

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Region

Western philosophy

Main interests

Liberty , theology , physics

Notable ideas

Pantheism

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Image

John Toland.jpg

via Wikidata · CC0