Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
There is frequently more to be learned from the unexpected questions of a child than the discourses of men.
It is one thing to persuade, another to command; one thing to press with arguments, another with penalties.
That which parents should take care of... is to distinguish between the wants of fancy, and those of nature.
To be rational is so glorious a thing, that two-legged creatures generally content themselves with the title.
Mathematical proofs, like diamonds, are hard and clear, and will be touched with nothing but strict reasoning.
All men are liable to error; and most men are, in many points, by passion or interest, under temptation to it.
He that will have his son have respect for him and his orders, must himself have a great reverence for his son.
[Individuals] have a right to defend themselves and recover by force what by unlawful force is taken from them.
Anger is uneasiness or discomposure of the mind upon the receipt of any injury, with a present purpose of revenge
He that judges without informing himself to the utmost that he is capable, cannot acquit himself of judging amiss
That which is static and repetitive is boring. That which is dynamic and random is confusing. In between lies art.
Faith is the assent to any proposition not made out by the deduction of reason but upon the credit of the proposer.
I thought that I had no time for faith nor time to pray, then I saw an armless man saying his Rosary with his feet.
The people cannot delegate to government the power to do anything which would be unlawful for them to do themselves.
Words, in their primary or immediate signification, stand for nothing but the ideas in the mind of him who uses them.
All mankind... being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions.
New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.
The thoughts that come often unsought, and, as it were, drop into the mind, are commonly the most valuable of any we have.
Crooked things may be as stiff and unflexible as streight: and Men may be as positive and peremptory in Error as in Truth.
To prejudge other men's notions before we have looked into them is not to show their darkness but to put out our own eyes.
The least and most imperceptible impressions received in our infancy have consequences very important and of long duration.
So difficult it is to show the various meanings and imperfections of words when we have nothing else but words to do it with.
It is of great use to the sailor to know the length of his line, though he cannot with it fathom all the depths of the ocean.
Our incomes are like our shoes; if too small, they gall and pinch us; but if too large, they cause us to stumble and to trip.
When ideas float in our mind, without any reflection or regard of the understanding, it is that which the French call reverie.
Though the water running in the fountain be every ones, yet who can doubt, but that in the pitcher is his only who drew it out?
To love truth for truth's sake is the principal part of human perfection in this world, and the seed-plot of all other virtues.
In transgressing the law of nature, the offender declares himself to live by another rule than that of reason and common equity.
A man may live long, and die at last in ignorance of many truths, which his mind was capable of knowing, and that with certainty.
To ask at what time a man has first any ideas is to ask when he begins to perceive; having ideas and perception being the same thing.
I have no reason to suppose that he, who would take away my Liberty, would not when he had me in his Power, take away everything else.
Affectation is an awkward and forced imitation of what should be genuine and easy, wanting the beauty that accompanies what is natural.
If all be a Dream, then he doth but dream that he makes the Question; and so it is not much matter that a waking Man should answer him.
The difference, so observable in men's understandings and parts, does not arise so much from their natural faculties, as acquired habits.
Children generally hate to be idle; all the care then is that their busy humour should be constantly employed in something of use to them
He that makes use of another's fancy or necessity to sell ribbons or cloth dearer to him than to another man at the same time, cheats him.
Memory is the power to revive again in our minds those ideas which after imprinting have disappeared, or have been laid aside out of sight.
Virtue is everywhere that which is thought praiseworthy; and nothing else but that which has the allowance of public esteem is called virtue.
Since the great foundation of fear is pain, the way to harden and fortify children against fear and danger is to accustom them to suffer pain.
The rising unto place is laborious, and by pains men come to greater pains; and it is sometimes base, and by indignities men come to dignities.
One unerring mark of the love of truth is not entertaining any proposition with greater assurance than the proofs it is built upon will warrant.
Man is not permitted without censure to follow his own thoughts in the search of truth, when they lead him ever so little out of the common road.
Any one reflecting upon the thought he has of the delight, which any present or absent thing is apt to produce in him, has the idea we call love.
Some eyes want spectacles to see things clearly and distinctly: but let not those that use them therefore say nobody can see clearly without them.
The necessity of pursuing true happiness is the foundation of all liberty- Happiness, in its full extent, is the utmost pleasure we are capable of.
The improvement of understanding is for two ends: first, our own increase of knowledge; secondly, to enable us to deliver that knowledge to others.
An excellent man, like precious metal, is in every way invariable; A villain, like the beams of a balance, is always varying, upwards and downwards.
We should have a great fewer disputes in the world if words were taken for what they are, the signs of our ideas only, and not for things themselves.
When the sacredness of property is talked of, it should be remembered that any such sacredness does not belong in the same degree to landed property.
As usurpation is the exercise of power which another has a right to, so tyranny is the exercise of power beyond right, which nobody can have a right to.