History is the discovering of the principles of human nature.

Interest is the barometer of the state.

Accurate and just reasoning is the only catholic remedy, fitted for all persons and all dispositions; and is alone able to subvert that abstruse philosophy and metaphysical jargon, which, being mixed up with popular superstition, renders it in a manner impenetrable to careless reasoners, and gives it the air of science and wisdom.

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

It is evident, from their method of propagation, that a couple of cats, in fifty years, would stock a whole kingdom; and if that religious veneration were still paid them, it would, in twenty more, not only be easier in Egypt to find a god than a man, which Petronius says was the case in some parts of Italy; but the gods must at last entirely starve the men, and leave themselves neither priests nor votaries remaining.

It is a certain rule that wit and passion are entirely incompatible. When the affections are moved, there is no place for the imagination.

All knowledge degenerates into probability.