“The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries.”

“Gratitude is a species of love, excited in us by some action of the person for whom we have it, and by which we believe that he has done some good to us, or at least that he has had the intention of doing so. Passions, III, 193. XI, 473-474. Trans. John Morris”

“When people say that animal rescuers are crazy, what they really mean is that animal rescuers share a number of fundamental beliefs that makes them easy to marginalize. Among those is the belief that Rene Descartes was a jackass.”

“I revered our theology, and aspired as much as any one to reach heaven: but being given assuredly to understand that the way is not less open to the most ignorant than to the most learned, and that the revealed truths which lead to heaven are above our comprehension, I did not presume to subject them to the impotency of my reason; and I thought that in order competently to undertake their examination, there was need of some special help from heaven, and of being more than man.”

“Perfect numbers like perfect men are very rare.”

“A state is better governed which has few laws, and those laws strictly observed.”

“The two operations of our understanding, intuition and deduction, on which alone we have said we must rely in the acquisition of knowledge.”

“When it is not in our power to follow what is true, we ought to follow what is most probable.”

“I am indeed amazed when I consider how weak my mind is and how prone to error.”

“The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries.”

“It is not enough to have a good mind the main thing is to use it well.”