"Nothing is more apt to surprise us than the extreme poverty of opinion, which prevails in this country, with regard to questions of morals, politics, and religion."

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

"I may venture to affirm, that there is nothing in itself more surprising than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few; and the implicit submission, with which men resign their own sen…"

"The life of man is a perpetual flux of motion. All his thoughts, sentiments, and actions are in a continual succession, and never remain for any considerable time in the same state."

"The greatest part of mankind may be divided into two classes; that of shallow thinkers, who fall short of the truth, and that of abstruse thinkers, who go beyond it."