Jean Meslier

Jean Meslier

Jean Meslier (15 June 1664 – 17 June 1729), was a French Catholic priest (abbé) who was discovered, upon his death, to have written a book-length philosophical essay promoting atheism. Described by the author as his "testament" to his parishioners, the text denounces all religion.

Quotes

Testament: Memoir of the Thoughts and Sentiments of Jean Meslier

Mémoires des pensées et sentiments de Jean Meslier

• How I suffered when I had to preach to you those pious lies that I detest in my heart. What remorse your credulity caused me! A thousand times I was on the point of breaking out publicly and opening your eyes, but a fear stronger than myself held me back, and forced me to keep silence until my death.
  • Preface to Mon Testament, quoted by Voltaire in a letter to the Comte d'Argental, February 1762; trans. Margaret Knight, Humanist Anthology: From Confucius to Bertrand Russell (London: Barrie & Rockliff, 1961), p. 28

• It is an act of cruelty, of barbarism, to kill, to strike unconscious, and to cut the throat of animals, who do no harm to anyone, the way we do; because they are sensitive to injury and pain just as we are, regardless of what is said vainly, falsely, and ridiculously by our new Cartesians, who regard them as purely machines without soul and without feelings … This is a ridiculous opinion, a pernicious principle, and a detestable doctrine, because it clearly tends to stifle in the hearts of men all feelings of kindness, of gentleness, and of humanity that they might have toward these poor animals. … Blessed are the nations that treat them kindly and favorably, who are compassionate toward their miseries and their pains; but cursed are the nations that treat them cruelly, who tyrannize over them, who enjoy shedding their blood, and who are avid to eat their flesh.
  • In Œuvres complètes (Paris: Anthropos, 1970–1972), t. I, 210-18; quoted in Matthieu Ricard, A Plea for the Animals, trans. Sherab Chödzin Kohn (Boulder, CO: Shambhala, 2016), p. 19

• Il me souvient á ce sujet d’un souhait que faisait autrefois un homme, qui n’avait ni science ni ètude; mais qui, selon les aparences ne manquoit pas de bon sens pour juger sainement de tous les détestables abus et de toutes les détestables cérémonies, que je blâme ici. Il paroit par la manière d'exprimer sa pensée, qu'il voïoit assez loin et qu'il pénétroit assez avant dans le mistère d'iniquité, dont je viens de parler, puisqu'il en reconnoissoit si bien les auteurs et les fauteurs. Il souhaitoit, disoit-il, par raport au sujet dont je parle, que tous les grands de la terre et que tous les nobles fussent pendus et étranglés avec les boïaux des prêtres. Cette expression ne doit point manquer de paroître as-sez rude et grossière, mais il faut avouer qu'elle est franche et naïve. Elle est courte, mais elle est expressive; puisqu'elle exprime assez en peu de mots tout ce que ces sortes de gens-là méritent. Pour ce qui est de moi, mes chers amis, si j'avois un souhait à faire sur ce sujet (et je ne manquerois pas de le faire, s'il pouvoit avoir son effet) je souhaiterois d'avoir les bras et la force d'un Hercule pour purger le monde de tout vice et de toute iniquité, et pour avoir le plaisir d'assommer tous ces monstres d'erreurs et d'iniquité, qui font gémir si pitoïablement tous les peuples de la terre.
  • I remember, on this subject, a wish that was formerly made by a man who had neither learning nor education; but who, according to appearances, did not lack good sense for judging soundly of all the detestable abuses and all the detestable ceremonies that I condemn here. It appears from the manner in which he expressed his thought that he saw quite far, and that he penetrated quite deeply into the mystery of iniquity of which I have just spoken, since he recognized so well its authors and its supporters. He wished, he said, with regard to the subject of which I speak, that all the great men of the earth and all the nobles might be hanged and strangled with the entrails of the priests. This expression cannot fail to appear rather harsh and coarse; but it must be admitted that it is frank and naïve. It is brief, but it is expressive, since it expresses in very few words all that such people deserve. As for me, my dear friends, if I had a wish to make on this subject (and I would not fail to make it if it could have its effect), I would wish to have the arms and the strength of a Hercules in order to purge the world of every vice and every iniquity, and to have the pleasure of clubbing to death all these monsters of error and of iniquity, who make all the peoples of the earth groan so pitiably.
  • Le Testament (Amsterdam, 1864), pp. 18-19; trans. ChatGPT (18 July 2026)

Superstition in All the Ages (1732)

• When we wish to examine in a cool, calm way the opinions of men, we are very much surprised to find that in those which we consider the most essential, nothing is more rare than to find them using common sense; that is to say, the portion of judgment sufficient to know the most simple truths, to reject the most striking absurdities, and to be shocked by palpable contradictions.

• In a word, whoever will consult common sense upon religious opinions, and will carry into this examination the attention given to objects of ordinary interest, will easily perceive that these opinions have no solid foundation; that all religion is but a castle in the air; that Theology is but ignorance of natural causes reduced to a system; that it is but a long tissue of chimeras and contradictions; that it presents to all the different nations of the earth only romances devoid of probability, of which the hero himself is made up of qualities impossible to reconcile, his name having the power to excite in all hearts respect and fear, is found to be but a vague word, which men continually utter, being able to attach to it only such ideas or qualities as are belied by the facts, or which evidently contradict each other.