Upon the whole, I am inclined to think that the far greater part, if not all, of those difficulties which have hitherto amused philosophers, and blocked up the way to knowledge, are entirely owing to our selves. That we have first raised a dust, and then complain, we cannot see.

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.

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

Casting an eye on the education of children, from whence I can make a judgment of my own, I observe they are instructed in religious matters before they can reason about them, and consequently that all such instruction is nothing else but filling the tender mind of a child with prejudices.

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

Where the people are well educated, the art of piloting a state is best learned from the writings of Plato.

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