Reason has so many forms that we do not know which to choose-Experiment has no fewer.

Traveling through the world produces a marvelous clarity in the judgment of men. We are all of us confined and enclosed within ourselves, and see no farther than the end of our nose. This great world is a mirror where we must see ourselves in order to know ourselves. There are so many different tempers, so many different points of view, judgments, opinions, laws and customs to teach us to judge wisely on our own, and to teach our judgment to recognize its imperfection and natural weakness.

Seeing that the Senses cannot decide our dispute, being themselves full of uncertainty, we must have recourse to Reason; there is no reason but must be built upon another reason: so here we are retreating backwards to infinity.

Socrates thought and so do I that the wisest theory about the gods is no theory at all.

We can be knowledgeable with other men's knowledge, but we cannot be wise with other men's wisdom.

Lucius Arruntius killed himself, he said, to escape both the future and the past.

Fame and tranquility can never be bedfellows.