I attribute the little I know to my not having been ashamed to ask for information, and to my rule of conversing with all descriptions of men on those topics that form their own peculiar professions and pursuits.

Who lies for you will lie against you.

The greatest part of mankind ... are given up to labor, and enslaved to the necessity of their mean condition; whose lives are worn out only in the provisions for living.

Revelation in matters where reason cannot judge, or but probably, ought to be hearkened to. First, Whatever proposition is revealed, of whose truth our mind, by its natural faculties and notions, cannot judge, that is purely matter of faith, and above reason.

Let not men think there is no truth, but in the sciences that they study, or the books that they read.

Parents wonder why the streams are bitter, when they themselves have poisoned the fountain.

Good and evil, reward and punishment, are the only motives to a rational creature