Adam Weishaupt

“Morality will perform all this; and Morality is the fruit of Illumination.”

“I did not bring Deism into Bavaria.”

“Of all the means I know to lead men, the most effectual is a concealed mystery.”

“Let this circumstance of our constitution therefore be directed to this noble purpose, and then all the objections urged against it by jealous tyranny and affrighted superstition will vanish.”

“And of all illumination which human reason can give, none is comparable to the discovery of what we are, our nature, our obligations, what happiness we are capable of, and what are the means of attaining it.”

“When man lives under government, he is fallen, his worth is gone, and his nature tarnished.”

“The first task of the association must therefore be to form the young members.”

“But alas, they are all sadly deficient, because they leave us under the domination of political and religious prejudices; and they are as inefficient as the sleepy dose of an ordinary sermon.”

“But I would have executed much greater things, had not government always opposed my exertions, and placed others in situations which would have suited my talents.”

“The hankering of the mind is irresistible.”

“I am proud to be known to the world as the founder of the Illuminati.”

“It was the full conviction of this, and of what could be done, if every man were placed in the office for which he was fitted by nature and a proper education, which first suggested to me the plan of Illumination.”

“The head of every family will be what Abraham was, the patriarch, the priest and the unlettered lord of his family, and Reason will be the code of laws to all mankind.”

“In another situation, and in an active station in life, I should have been keenly occupied, and the founding of an order would have never come into my head.”

“The human race will then become one family, and the world will be the dwelling of Rational Men.”

“My general plan is good, though in the detail there may be faults.”

“Oh mortal man, is there anything you cannot be made to believe?”

“This is the great object held out by this association; and the means of attaining it is illumination, enlightening the understanding by the sun of reason which will dispell the clouds of superstition and of prejudice.”

“G is Grace, the Flaming Star is the Torch of Reason. Those who possess this knowledge are indeed Illuminati.”

“Nothing would be more profitable to us than a right history of mankind.”