Government is the political representative of a natural equilibrium, of custom, of inertia; it is by no means a representative of reason.

The living have never shown me how to live.

Gnomic wisdom, however, is notoriously polychrome, and proverbs depend for their truth entirely on the occasion they are applied to. Almost every wise saying has an opposite one, no less wise, to balance it.

There is nothing to which men, while they have food and drink, cannot reconcile themselves.

I like to walk about among the beautiful things that adorn the world; but private wealth I should decline, or any sort of personal possessions, because they would take away my liberty.

Religious doctrines would do well to withdraw their pretension to be dealing with matters of fact. That pretension is not only the source of the conflicts of religion with science and the vain and bitter controversies of sects; it is also the cause of the impurity and incoherence of religion in the soul.

There is a kind of courtesy in skepticism. It would be an offense against polite conventions to press our doubts too far.