If there be such a thing as truth, it must infallibly be struck out by the collision of mind with mind.

Man is the only creature we know, that, when the term of his natural life is ended, leaves the memory of himself behind him.

He has no right to his life when his duty calls him to resign it. Other men are bound ... to deprive him of life or liberty, if that should appear in any case to be indispensably necessary to prevent a greater evil.

The real or supposed rights of man are of two kinds, active and passive; the right in certain cases to do as we list; and the right we possess to the forbearance or assistance of other men. The first of these a just philosophy will probably induce us universally to explode.

Books gratify and excite our curiosity in innumerable ways.

We cannot perform our tasks to the best of our power, unless we think well of our own capacity.

I shall attempt to prove two things: first, that the actions and dispositions of mankind are the offspring of circumstances and events, and not of any original determination that they bring into the world; and, secondly, that the great stream of our voluntary actions essentially depends, not upon the direct and immediate impulses of sense, but upon the decisions of the understanding.