All knowledge degenerates into probability.

There is a very remarkable inclination in human nature to bestow on external objects the same emotions which it observes in itself, and to find every where those ideas which are most present to it.

Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions.

Between married persons, the cement of friendship is by the laws supposed so strong as to abolish all division of possessions: andhas often, in reality, the force ascribed to it.

A little philosophy makes a man an Atheist: a great deal converts him to religion

Avarice, or the desire of gain, is a universal passion which operates at all times, at all places, and upon all persons.

Disbelief in futurity loosens in a great measure the ties of morality, and may be for that reason pernicious to the peace of civil society.