In honest truth, a name given to a man is no better than a skin given to him; what is not natively his own falls off and comes to nothing.

Life and death appear more certainly ours than whatsoever else; and yet hardly can that be called ours, which comes without our knowledge, and goes without it.

Was genius ever ungrateful? Mere talents are dry leaves, tossed up and down by gusts of passion, and scattered and swept away; but, Genius lies on the bosom of Memory, and Gratitude at her feet.

I would recommend a free commerce both of matter and mind. I would let men enter their own churches with the same freedom as their own houses; and I would do it without a homily or graciousness or favor, for tyranny itself is to me a word less odious than toleration.

We fancy we suffer from ingratitude, while in reality we suffer from self-love.

It is as wise to moderate our belief as our desires.

Every sect is a moral check on its neighbour. Competition is as wholesome in religion as in commerce.