How could a state be governed, or protected in its foreign relations if every individual remained free to obey or not to obey the law according to his private opinion.

And therefore, as when there is a controversy in an account, the parties must by their own accord, set up for right Reason, the Reason of some Arbitrator, or Judge, to whose sentence, they will both stand, or their controversy must either come to blows, or be undecided, for want of a right Reason constituted by Nature; so is it also in all debates of what kind soever.

Man is distinguished not only by his reason, but also by this singular passion, from all other animals.

I am about to take my last voyage, a great leap in the dark.

It's not the pace of life I mind. It's the sudden stop at the end.

Emulation is grief arising from seeing one's self, exceeded or excelled by his concurrent, together with hope to equal or exceed him in time to come, by his own ability. But envy is the same grief joined with pleasure conceived in the imagination of some ill-fortune that may befall him.

I shall be glad then to find a hole to creep out of the world.