It is not contrary to reason to prefer the destruction of the whole world to the scratching of my finger.

It is harder to avoid censure than to gain applause.

Morals and criticism are not so properly objects of the understanding as of taste and sentiment.

The consequence of a very free commerce between the sexes, and of their living much together, will often terminate in intrigues and gallantry.

It seems then, say I, that you leave politics entirely out of the question, and never suppose, that a wise magistrate can justly be jealous of certain tenets of philosophy, such as those of Epicurus, which, denying a divine existence, and consequently a providence and a future state, seem to loosen, in a great measure, the ties of morality, and may be supposed, for that reason, pernicious to the peace of civil society.

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

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.