In short, if there were external bodies, it is impossible we should ever come to know it; and if there were not, we might have the very same reasons to think there were that we have now.

Whenever I attempt to frame a simple idea of time, abstracted from the succession of ideas in my mind, which flows uniformly, and is participated by all beings, I am lost and embrangled in inextricable difficulties.

To be a good patriot, a man must consider his countrymen as God's creatures, and himself as accountable for his acting towards them.

I had rather be an oyster than a man, the most stupid and senseless of animals.

Make a point never go clear, it is great odds that a man whose habits and the bent of whose mind lie a contrary way, shall be unable to comprehend it. So weak a thing is reason in competition with inclination.

What is mind? No matter. What is matter? Never mind.

For my own private satisfaction, I had rather be master of my own time than wear a diadem.