“What we are told of the inhabitants of Brazil, that they never die but of old age, is attributed to the tranquility and serenity of their climate; I rather attribute it to the tranquility and serenity of their souls, which are free from all passion, thought, or any absorbing and unpleasant labors. Those people spend their lives in an admirable simplicity and ignorance, without letters, without law, without king, without any manner of religion.” PeopleSoulAgeLawReligionDiesPassionIgnoranceKingsLaborLettersClimateSimplicityOld AgeAttributesSerenityTranquilityAdmirableBrazilAbsorbingRelativism Book:The Essays Source: The Essays
“[The human mind] finds more facility in assenting to the self-existence of an invisible cause possessing infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, than in the self-existence of the universe, visibly destitute of these attributes, and which may be the effect of them.” MindHumansMaySelfReligionUniverseCausesExistenceEffectsGoodnessInfiniteInvisibleHuman MindAttributesFacilityPossessingDestituteInfinite Power Author:James Madison