Nature has with a Motherly Tenderness observed this, that the Action she has enjoyned us for our Necessity should be also pleasant to us, and invites us to them, not only by Reason, but also by Appetite: and ’tis Injustice to infringe her Laws.

Those sciences which govern the morals of mankind, such as Theology and Philosophy, make everything their concern: no activity is so private or so secret as to escape their attention or their jurisdiction.

Every period of life has its peculiar prejudices; whoever saw old age, that did not applaud the past, and condemn the present times?

In my youth I studied for ostentation; later, a little to gain wisdom; now, for recreation; never for gain.

There is the name and the thing; the name is a sound which sets a mark on and denotes the thing. The name is no part of the thing nor of the substance; it is an extraneous piece added to the thing, and outside of it.

Even opinion is of force enough to make itself to be espoused at the expense of life.

When I quote others I do so in order to express my own ideas more clearly.