ADAM WEISHAUPT

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

The hankering of the mind is irresistible.

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.

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

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

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

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.

Duties and rights are reciprocal

The occupations must be so allotted and contrived, that we may, in secret, influence all political transactions.

Nothing would be more profitable to us than a right history of mankind. Despotism has robbed them of their liberty. How can the weak obtain protection? Only by union; but this is rare. Nothing can bring this about but hidden societies. Hidden schools of wisdom are the means which will one day free men from their bonds. These have in all ages been the archives of nature, and the rights of men; and by them shall human nature be raised from her fallen state. Princes and nations shall vanish from the earth. The human race will then become one family, and the world will be the dwelling of Rational Men.

We have to struggle with pedantry, with intolerance, with divines and statesmen, and above all, princes and priests are in our way.

The Illuminati is inviting to Christians of every communion; gradually frees them from all religious prejudices; cultivates the social virtues; and animates them by a great, a feasible, a speedy prospect of universal happiness, in a state of liberty and moral equality, freed from the obstacles which subordination, rank, and riches, continually throw in our way …. Our secret association works in a way that nothing can withstand, and man shall soon be free and happy.