Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty.

History is the discovering of the principles of human nature.

The free conversation of a friend is what I would prefer to any environment.

But, historians, and even common sense, may inform us, that, however specious these ideas of perfect equality may seem, they are really, at bottom, impracticable; and were they not so, would be extremely pernicious to human society. Render possessions ever so equal, men's different degrees of art, care, and industry will immediately break that equality. Or if you check these virtues, you reduce society to the most extreme indigence; and instead of preventing want and beggary in a few, render it unavoidable to the whole community.

And whoever is moved by Faith to assent to it, is conscious of a continued miracle in his own person, which subverts all the principles of his understanding, and gives him a determination to believe what is most contrary to custom and experience.

Human happiness seems to consist in three ingredients: action, pleasure and indolence.

The unhappy of all men is he who believes himself to be so.