Courtesy and good-humour are often found with little real worth.

A man has no more right to say an uncivil thing than to act one; no more right to say a rude thing to another than to knock him down.

The only end of writing is to enable readers better to enjoy life or better to endure it.

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

Human experience, which is constantly contradicting theory, is the great test of truth. A system, built upon the discoveries of a great many minds, is always of more strength, than what is produced by the mere workings of any one mind, which, of itself, can do very little. There is not so poor a book in the world that would not be a prodigious effort were it wrought out entirely by a single mind, without the aid of prior investigators.

The gratification of curiosity rather frees us from uneasiness than confers pleasure; we are more pained by ignorance than delighted by instruction. Curiosity is the thirst of the soul; it inflames and torments us, and makes us taste every thing with joy, however otherwise insipid, by which it may be quenched.

Every man who attacks my belief, diminishes in some degree my confidence in it, and therefore makes me uneasy; and I am angry with him who makes me uneasy.