The return of my birthday, if I remember it, fills me with thoughts which it seems to be the general care of humanity to escape.

If useless thoughts could be expelled from the mind, all the valuable parts of our knowledge would more frequently recur.

Where necessity ends, desire and curiosity begin; and no sooner are we supplied with everything nature can demand than we sit down to contrive artificial appetites.

The whole power of cunning is privative; to say nothing, and to do nothing , is the utmost of its reach. Yet men, thus narrow by nature and mean by art, are sometimes able to rise by the miscarriages of bravery and the openness of integrity, and, watching failures and snatching opportunities, obtain advantages which belong to higher characters.

The specualtist, who is not content with superficial views, harasses himself with fruitless curiosity; and still, as he inquires more, perceives only that he knows less.

Curiosity is the thirst of the soul.

Prejudice, not being founded on reason, cannot be removed by argument.