I pretend not to teach, but to inquire.

When the sacredness of property is talked of, it should be remembered that any such sacredness does not belong in the same degree to landed property.

This is that which I think great readers are apt to be mistaken in; those who have read of everything, are thought to understand everything too; but it is not always so. Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours. We are of the ruminating kind , and it is not enough to cram ourselves with a great load of collections:;; unless we chew them over again, they will not give us strength and nourishment.

That which parents should take care of... is to distinguish between the wants of fancy, and those of nature.

In all things, therefore, where we have clear evidence from our ideas, and those principles of knowledge I have above mentioned, reason is the proper judge; and revelation, though it may, in consenting with it, confirm its dictates, yet cannot in such cases invalidate its decrees: nor can we be obliged, where we have the clear and evident sentience of reason, to quit it for the contrary opinion, under a pretence that it is matter of faith: which can have no authority against the plain and clear dictates of reason.

I have spent more than half a lifetime trying to express the tragic moment.

The dread of evil is a much more forcible principle of human actions than the prospect of good.