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" To be a philosophical sceptic is, in a man of letters, the first and most essential to being a sound, believing Christian. "

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" That the sun will not rise tomorrow is no less intelligible a proposition, and implies no more contradiction, than the affirmation, that it will rise. "

" Men often act knowingly against their interest. "

" Be a philosopher but, amid all your philosophy be still a man. "

" Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them. "

" The life of man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster. "

" The law always limits every power it gives. "

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" Any person seasoned with a just sense of the imperfections of natural reason, will fly to revealed truth with the greatest avidity. "

" Nothing endears so much a friend as sorrow for his death. The pleasure of his company has not so powerful an influence. "

" It is not reason which is the guide of life, but custom. "

" It is not contrary to reason to prefer the destruction of the whole world to the scratching of my finger. "

" It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once. "

" I have written on all sorts of subjects... yet I have no enemies; except indeed all the Whigs, all the Tories, and all the Christians. "

" No testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which it endeavors to establish. "

" This avidity alone, of acquiring goods and possessions for ourselves and our nearest friends, is insatiable, perpetual, universal, and directly destructive of society. "

" Beauty, whether moral or natural, is felt, more properly than perceived. "

" And what is the greatest number? Number one. "

Greatest Number

" A man acquainted with history may, in some respect, be said to have lived from the beginning of the world, and to have been making continual additions to his stock of knowledge in every century. "

" A propensity to hope and joy is real riches; one to fear and sorrow real poverty. "

" Men are much oftener thrown on their knees by the melancholy than by the agreeable passions. "

" There is not to be found, in all history, any miracle attested by a sufficient number of men, of such unquestioned good sense, education and learning, as to secure us against all delusion in themselves. "

" The advantages found in history seem to be of three kinds, as it amuses the fancy, as it improves the understanding, and as it strengthens virtue. "

" Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principals. "

" Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous. "

" Accuracy is, in every case, advantageous to beauty, and just reasoning to delicate sentiment. In vain would we exalt the one by depreciating the other. "

" The rules of morality are not the conclusion of our reason. "

" There is a very remarkable inclination in human nature to bestow on external objects the same emotions which it observes in itself, and to find every where those ideas which are most present to it. "