He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.

Every man is under the natural duty of contributing to the necessities of the society; and this is all the laws should enforce on him.

For if one link in nature's chain might be lost, another might be lost, until the whole of things will vanish by piecemeal.

The issue for patents for new discovers has given a spring to invention beyond my conception.

No man complains of his neighbor for ill management of his affairs, for an error in sowing his land, or marrying his daughter, for consuming his substance in taverns ... in all these he has liberty; but if he does not frequent the church, or then conform in ceremonies, there is an immediate uproar.

The happiest hours of my life have been spent in the flow of affection among friends.

We are afraid of the known and afraid of the unknown. That is our daily life and in that there is no hope, and therefore every form of philosophy, every form of theological concept, is merely an escape from the actual reality of what is. All outward forms of change brought about by wars, revolutions, reformations, laws and ideologies have failed completely to change the basic nature of man and therefore of society.