Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind

Flying would give such occasions for intrigues as people cannot meet with who have nothing but legs to carry them.

A well regulated commerce is not, like law, physic, or divinity, to be overstocked with hands; but, on the contrary, flourishes by multitudes, and gives employment to all its professors.

Everything that is new or uncommon raises a pleasure in the imagination, because it fills the soul with an agreeable surprise, gratifies its curiosity, and gives it an idea of which it was not before possessed.

The man who lives by hope, will die by hunger.

Among the several kinds of beauty, the eye takes most delight in colors.

Our delight in any particular study, art, or science rises and improves in proportion to the application which we bestow upon it. Thus, what was at first an exercise becomes at length an entertainment.