People first feel things without noticing them, then notice them with inner distress and disturbance, and finally reflect on them with a clear mind.

Uniform ideas originating among entire peoples unknown to each other must have a common ground of truth.

Metaphysics abstracts the mind from the senses, and the poetic faculty must submerge the whole mind in the senses. Metaphysics soars up to universals, and the poetic faculty must plunge deep into particulars.

The nature of peoples is first crude, then severe, then benign, then delicate, finally dissolute.

Men first feel necessity, then look for utility, next attend to comfort, still later amuse themselves with pleasure, thence grow dissolute in luxury, and finally go mad and waste their substance.

Governments must conform to the nature of the men governed.

Common sense is judgment without reflection, shared by an entire class, an entire nation, or the entire human race.