We should be similarly wary of accepting common opinions; we should judge them by the ways of reason not by popular vote.

I must accommodate my history to the hour: I may presently change, not only by fortune, but also by intention.

The beginnings of all things are weak and tender. We must therefore be clear-sighted in the beginnings, for, as in their budding we discern not the danger, so in their full growth we perceive not the remedy.

Anyone who does not feel sufficiently strong in memory should not meddle with lying.

It makes me hate accepting things that are probable when they are held up before me as infallibly true. I prefer these words which tone down and modify the hastiness of our propositions: "Perhaps, In some sort, Some, They say, I think," and the like.

The most ordinary things, the most common and familiar, if we could see them in their true light, would turn out to be the grandest miracles.

Death, they say, acquits us of all obligations.