Adam Weishaupt quotes

Adam Weishaupt was a German philosopher and professor of law, best known as the founder of the secret society known as the Illuminati. His work and the society he created influenced discussions about freedom, enlightenment, and conspiracy. He became a symbol of secret knowledge and the pursuit of rational thought in the Age of Enlightenment. Here are 31 of his quotes:

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. (Adam Weishaupt)
The human race will then become one family, and the world will be the dwelling of Rational Men. View quote
Adam Weishaupt
I am proud to be known to the world as the founder of the Illuminati. View quote
Adam Weishaupt
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. View quote
Adam Weishaupt
When man lives under government, he is fallen, his worth is gone, and his nature tarnished. View quote
Adam Weishaupt
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. View quote
Adam Weishaupt
The first task of the association must therefore be to form the young members. View quote
Adam Weishaupt
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. View quote
Adam Weishaupt
Of all the means I know to lead men, the most effectual is a concealed mystery. View quote
Adam Weishaupt
Oh mortal man, is there anything you cannot be made to believe? View quote
Adam Weishaupt
G is Grace, the Flaming Star is the Torch of Reason. Those who possess this knowledge are indeed Illuminati. (Adam Weishaupt)
The hankering of the mind is irresistible. View quote
Adam Weishaupt
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. View quote
Adam Weishaupt
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. View quote
Adam Weishaupt
A Literary Society is the most proper form for the introduction of our Order into any state where we are yet strangers. View quote
Adam Weishaupt
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. View quote
Adam Weishaupt
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. View quote
Adam Weishaupt
My general plan is good, though in the detail there may be faults. View quote
Adam Weishaupt
I myself brought Deism no more to Bavaria than to Rome or Italy. I found it there already; and I shall give the reasons below, just why in the most fanatical countries, and more under Catholicism than Protestantism, this sort of person is found in such a measure and multitude. View quote
Adam Weishaupt
Since the number of men is large but the earthly realm is not inexhaustible, one man can no longer profit from the labour of twenty. Moderation, contentment, and frugality must become the general morals of mankind. [...] The whole earth becomes a garden, and nature has at last completed her day's work here below, bringing permanent enlightenment, peace, and felicity together with the greatest possible number of men : she has anointed every man as his own judge, priest, and king; has turned the often-ridiculed tale of the golden age, mankind's favorite idea of old, into a reality by discreetly removing the eternal inequality of wealth, which has been ineffectively combated by all lawgivers and has always has crept back in, and which is the source of the decay of all nations, and the root of servitude, tyranny, and disunity among men, of venality and moral corruption, making it forever impossible through the excessive growth of the human population. View quote
Adam Weishaupt
In the stage of manhood alone does the human race first appear in his dignity; only there are his principles fixed, his connections appropriate, he sees the full circumference of his sphere; there alone - after we have already learned through many detours, through long, repeated, sad experiences, what a calamity it is to arrogate the rights of others, to raise oneself over others through mere external advantages, to use his size to the detriment of others - there alone one recognizes, believes, feels what an honor, what a joy it is to be a human being. (Adam Weishaupt)
In this time, when the games and abuses of secret societies were without end, I wanted to make use of this human weakness for a real and worthy goal, the welfare of mankind.... I wanted what the heads of the ecclesiastical and secular powers should do and want by virtue of their offices. View quote
Adam Weishaupt
Do you realize sufficiently what it means to rule-to rule in a secret society? Not only over the lesser or more important of the populace, but over the best of men, over men of all ranks, nations, and religions, to rule without external force, to unite them indissolubly, to breathe one spirit and soul into them, men distributed over all parts of the world? View quote
Adam Weishaupt
This first stage of the life of the whole race is savagery, raw nature:... a condition in which man enjoys the most exquisite goods, equality and freedom, in full abundance, and would also enjoy them forever, if he would follow the hint of nature and understand the art of not abusing his powers and preventing the outbreak of his excessive passions. View quote
Adam Weishaupt
Should you seek might, power, false honor, excess - seek that we would work for you to provide your temporal advantages - we will bring you as close to the throne as you wish, and then turn you over to the consequences of your folly, but our inner sanctuary remains closed to such. But should you want to learn wisdom - want to learn to make mankind more clever, better, free and happy - then be thrice welcomed by us. View quote
Adam Weishaupt