Religion & Toleration

David Hume argues that "love of liberty" in some individuals often attracts the religious inquisitor to persecute them and thereby drive society into a state of "ignorance, corruption, and bondage" (1757)

David Hume

Found in: The Natural History of Religion

[V]irtue, knowledge, love of liberty, are the qualities which call down the fatal vengeance of inquisitors; and when expelled, leave the society in the most shameful ignorance, corruption, and bondage. The illegal murder of one man by a tyrant is more pernicious than the death of a thousand by pestilence, famine, or any undistinguishing calamity.