If we confine ourselves to a general and distant reflection on the ills of human life, that can have no effect to prepare us for them. If by close and intense meditation we render them present and intimate to us, that is the true secret for poisoning all our pleasures, and rendering us perpetually miserable.

Human Nature is the only science of man; and yet has been hitherto the most neglected.

Moving from an objective statement of fact to a subjective statement of value does not work, because it leaves open questions that have not been answered.

It affords a violent prejudice against almost every science, that no prudent man, however sure of his principles, dares prophesy concerning any event, or foretell the remote consequences of things.

In public affairs men are often better pleased that the truth, though known to everybody, should be wrapped up under a decent cover than if it were exposed in open daylight to the eyes of all the world.

To hate, to love, to think, to feel, to see; all this is nothing but to perceive.

The most lively thought is still inferior to the dullest sensation.