Habit may lead us to belief and expectation but not to the knowledge, and still less to the understanding, of lawful relations.

Where is the reward of virtue? and what recompense has nature provided for such important sacrifices as those of life and fortune, which we must often make to it? O sons of earth! Are ye ignorant of the value of this celestial mistress? And do ye meanly inquire for her portion, when ye observe her genuine beauty?

While we are reasoning concerning life, life is gone.

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

This avidity alone, of acquiring goods and possessions for ourselves and our nearest friends, is insatiable, perpetual, universal, and directly destructive of society.

To be a philosophical sceptic is, in a man of letters, the first and most essential to being a sound, believing Christian.

There is no such thing as freedom of choice unless there is freedom to refuse.