Now, since our condition accommodates things to itself, and transforms them according to itself, we no longer know things in their reality; for nothing comes to us that is not altered and falsified by our Senses. When the compass, the square, and the rule are untrue, all the calculations drawn from them, all the buildings erected by their measure, are of necessity also defective and out of plumb. The uncertainty of our senses renders uncertain everything that they produce.

There is no desire more natural than the desire of knowledge. (Il n'est desir plus naturel que le desir de connaissance)

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.

It is indeed the boundary of life, beyond which we are not to pass; which the law of nature has pitched for a limit not to be exceeded.

Saying is one thing and doing is another; we are to consider the sermon and the preacher distinctly and apart.

I study myself more than any other subject. That is my metaphysics, that is my physics.

On the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom.