The theory that can absorb the greatest number of facts, and persist in doing so, generation after generation, through all changes of opinion and detail, is the one that must rule all observation.

This is one of those cases in which the imagination is baffled by the facts.

By nature a philosopher is not in genius and disposition half so different from a street porter, as a mastiff is from a greyhound

The mob, when they are gazing at a dancer on the slack rope, naturally writhe and twist and balance their own bodies, as they see him do.

Wonder... and not any expectation of advantage from its discoveries, is the first principle which prompts mankind to the study of Philosophy, of that science which pretends to lay open the concealed connections that unite the various appearances of nature.

What is prudence in the conduct of every private family can scarce be folly in that of a great kingdom.

A merchant, it has been said very properly, is not necessarily the citizen of any particular country.