We own almost all our knowledge not to those who have agreed but to those who have differed.

There is this difference between the two temporal blessings - health and money; money is the most envied, but the least enjoyed; health is the most enjoyed, but the least envied; and this superiority of the latter is still more obvious when we reflec.

Logic and metaphysics make use of more tools than all the rest of the sciences put together, and do the least work.

Men will wrangle for religion, write for it, fight for it, die for it; anything but live for it.

We should choose our books as we would our companions, for their sterling and intrinsic merit.

Genius, in one respect, is like gold; numbers of persons are constantly writing about both, who have neither.

When certain persons abuse us, let us ask ourselves what description of characters it is that they admire; we shall often find this a very consolatory question.