But to proceed in this reconciling project with regard to the question of liberty and necessity; the most contentious question of metaphysics, the most contentious science.

It is with books as with women, where a certain plainness of manner and of dress is more engaging than that glare of paint and airs and apparel which may dazzle the eye, but reaches not the affections.

I may venture to affirm the rest of mankind, that they are nothing but a bundle or collection of different perceptions, which succeed each other with an inconceivable rapidity, and are in a perpetual flux and movement.

Liberty of any kind is never lost all at once.

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

In a vain man, the smallest spark may kindle into the greatest flame, because the materials are always prepared for it.

Apart from the representational content of an idea there is another component: its force and vivacity, its impetus.