I never asserted such an absurd thing as that things arise without a cause.

While we are reasoning concerning life, life is gone.

A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.

Fine writing, according to Mr. Addison, consists of sentiments which are natural without being obvious.

No amount of observations of white swans can allow the inference that all swans are white, but the observation of a single black swan is sufficient to refute that conclusion.

It is an absurdity to believe that the Deity has human passions, and one of the lowest of human passions, a restless appetite for applause

It is a great mortification to the vanity of man, that his utmost art and industry can never equal the meanest of nature's productions, either for beauty or value. Art is only the under-workman, and is employed to give a few strokes of embellishment to those pieces, which come from the hand of the master.