Men might as well be imprisoned, as excluded from the means of earning their bread.

Customs are made for customary circumstances, and customary characters.

Induction is a process of inference; it proceeds from the known to the unknown.

I have learned to seek my happiness by limiting my desires, rather than in attempting to satisfy them.

He who lets the world, or his own portion of it, choose his plan of life for him, has no need of any other faculty than the ape-like one of imitation. He who chooses his plan for himself, employs all his faculties. He must use observation to see, reasoning and judgment to foresee, activity to gather materials for decision, discrimination to decide, and when he has decided, firmness and self-control to hold to his deliberate decision.

It is not because men's desires are strong that they act ill; it is because their consciences are weak.

The best state for human nature is that in which, while no one is poor, no one desires to be richer, nor has any reason to fear from thrust back, by the efforts of others to push themselves forward.