People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come in to the mind of others.

Our senses will not admit anything extreme. Too much noise confuses us, too much light dazzles us, too great distance or nearness prevents vision, too great prolixity or brevity weakens an argument, too much pleasure gives pain, too much accordance annoys.

Since we cannot be universal and know all that is to be known of everything, we ought to know a little about everything. For it is far better to know something about everything than to know all about one thing. This universality is the best. If we can have both, still better; but if we must choose, we ought to choose the former.

There should be in eloquence that which is pleasing and that which is real; but that which is pleasing should itself be real.

Imagination magnifies small objects with fantastic exaggeration until they fill our soul, and with bold insolence cuts down great things to its own size, as when speaking of God.

Reason is the slow and torturous method by which those who do not know the truth discover it

We must learn our limits. We are all something, but none of us are everything.