“His [Turgot's] first important literary and scholastic effort was a treatise On the Existence of God. Few fragments of it remain, but we are helped to understand him when we learn that he asserted, and to the end of his life maintained, his belief in an Almighty Creator and Upholder of the Universe. It did, indeed, at a later period suit the purposes of his enemies, exasperated by his tolerant spirit and his reforming plans, to proclaim him an atheist; but that sort of charge has been the commonest of missiles against troublesome thinkers in all times.” FirstsHas BeensImportantEndsSpiritPurposeUniverseBeliefEffortExistenceEnemyPlansPeriodsAtheistCreatorSuitsAll TimeThinkerAlmightyFragmentsMissilesTroublesomeExistence Of GodScholastics Author:Andrew Dickson White
“After Bruno's death, during the first half of the seventeenth century, Descartes seemed about to take the leadership of human thought... in promoting an evolution doctrine as regards the mechanical formation of the solar system... but his constant dread of persecution, both from Catholics and Protestants, led him steadily to veil his thoughts and even to suppress them. ...Since Roger Bacon, perhaps, no great thinker had been so completely abased and thwarted by theological oppression.” FirstsHumansHalfCenturyEvolutionRegardCatholicConstantDoctrineOppressionThinkerDreadPersecutionVeilsPromotingFormationTheologicalProtestantsRogerSolar SystemHuman ThoughtGreat Thinkers Author:Andrew Dickson White
