In the matter of a difficult question it is more likely that the truth should have been discovered by the few than by the many.

Illusory joy is often worth more than genuine sorrow.

I can doubt everything, except one thing, and that is the very fact that I doubt. Simply put - I think, therefore I am

Common sense is the most fairly distributed thing in the world, for each one thinks he is so well-endowed with it that even those who are hardest to satisfy in all other matters are not in the habit of desiring more of it than they already have.

In the matter of a difficult question it is more likely that the truth should have been discovered by the few than by the many.

Neither the true nor the false roots are always real; sometimes they are imaginary; that is, while we can always imagine as many roots for each equation as I have assigned, yet there is not always a definite quantity corresponding to each root we have imagined.

If we possessed a thorough knowledge of all the parts of the seed of any animal (e.g. man), we could from that alone, be reasons entirely mathematical and certain, deduce the whole conformation and figure of each of its members, and, conversely if we knew several peculiarities of this conformation, we would from those deduce the nature of its seed.