"Therefore it is easy for people to be captivated by a superstition, but difficult to ensure that they remain loyal to it. It is only a new form of credulity that really pleases them, one that has not yet let them down. Such instability of mind has been the cause of many riots and ferocious wars. [...] Hence people are easily led, under pretense of religion, sometimes to adore their kings as gods and at other times to curse them and detest them as the universal scourge of mankind."
Benedict Spinoza, "Preface", Theological-Political Treatise (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013), p. 5.
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