If faces were not alike, we could not distinguish men from beasts; if they were not different, we could not tell one man from another.

To divert myself from a troublesome fancy, it is but to run to my books; they presently fix me to them, and drive the other out of my thoughts, and do not mutiny to see that I have only recourse to them for want of other more, real, natural, and lively conveniences; they always receive me with the same kindness.

Miracles arise from our ignorance of nature, not from nature itself.

When all is summed up, a man never speaks of himself without loss; his accusations of himself are always believed; his praises never.

To forbid us anything is to make us have a mind to 't.

If these Essays were worthy of being judged, it might fall out, in my opinion, that they would not find much favour, either with common and vulgar minds, or with uncommon and eminent ones: the former would not find enough in them, the latter would find too much; they might manage to live somewhere in the middle region.

I see men ordinarily more eager to discover a reason for things than to find out whether the things are so.