Nothing more powerfully excites any affection than to conceal some part of its object, by throwing it into a kind of shade, whichat the same time that it shows enough to prepossess us in favour of the object, leaves still some work for the imagination.

In a vain man, the smallest spark may kindle into the greatest flame, because the materials are always prepared for it.

If the contemplation, even of inanimate beauty, is so delightful; if it ravishes the senses, even when the fair form is foreign tous: What must be the effects of moral beauty? And what influence must it have, when it embellishes our own mind, and is the result of our own reflection and industry?

The identity that we ascribe to things is only a fictitious one, established by the mind, not a peculiar nature belonging to what we’re talking about.

While we are reasoning concerning life, life is gone.

Scholastic learning and polemical divinity retarded the growth of all true knowledge.

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