Men of simple understanding, little inquisitive and little instructed, make good Christians.

There is no course of life so weak and sottish as that which is managed by order, method, and discipline.

We have no participation in Being, because all human nature is ever midway between being born and dying, giving off only a vague image and shadow of itself, and a weak and uncertain opinion. And if you chance to fix your thoughts on trying to grasp its essence, it would be neither more nor less than if your tried to clutch water.

There is no greater enemy to those who would please than expectation.

There is no passion that so much transports men from their right judgments as anger. No one would demur upon punishing a judge with death who should condemn a criminal upon the account of his own choler; why then should fathers and pedants be any more allowed to whip and chastise children in their anger? It is then no longer correction bat revenge. Chastisement is instead of physic to children; and should we suffer a physician who should be animated against and enraged at his patient?

A foreign war is a lot milder than a civil war.

This notion [skepticism] is more clearly understood by asking "What do I know?"