The world would be happier if men had the same capacity to be silent that they have to speak.

He who has a true idea, knows at that same time that he has a true idea, nor can he doubt concerning the truth of the thing.

Men would never be superstitious, if they could govern all their circumstances by set rules, or if they were always favoured by fortune: but being frequently driven into straits where rules are useless, and being often kept fluctuating pitiably between hope and fear by the uncertainty of fortune's greedily coveted favours, they are consequently for the most part, very prone to credulity.

Desire is the very essence of man

To understand something is to be delivered of it.

Pride is over-estimation of oneself by reason of self-love.

The idea, which constitutes the actual being of the human mind, is not simple, but compounded of a great number of ideas.