The criterion and rule of the true is to have made it. Accordingly, our clear and distinct idea of the mind cannot be a criterion of the mind itself, still less of other truths. For while the mind perceives itself, it does not make itself.
Giambattista VicoPolitical Science carries inseparably with it the study of piety, and that he who is not pious cannot be truly wise.
Giambattista VicoCommon sense is judgment without reflection, shared by an entire class, an entire nation, or the entire human race.
Giambattista VicoUniform ideas originating among entire peoples unknown to each other must have a common ground of truth.
Giambattista Vico