“The learned ignore the evidence of their senses to preserve the coherence of the ideas of their imagination.”

The great secret of education is to direct vanity to proper objects.

Resentment seems to have been given us by nature for a defense, and for a defense only! It is the safeguard of justice and the security of innocence.

Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all.

In a militia, the character of the laborer, artificer, or tradesman, predominates over that of the soldier: in a standing army, that of the soldier predominates over every other character.

The game women play is men.

The man scarce lives who is not more credulous than he ought to be. The natural disposition is always to believe. It is acquired wisdom and experience only that teach incredulity, and they very seldom teach it enough.

The world neither ever saw, nor ever will see, a perfectly fair lottery.

Goods can serve many other purposes besides purchasing money, but money can serve no other purpose besides purchasing goods.

I have no faith in political arithmetic.

Never complain of that of which it is at all times in your power to rid yourself.

The real and effectual discipline which is exercised over a workman is that of his customers. It is the fear of losing their employment which restrains his frauds and corrects his negligence.

No complaint is more common than that of a scarcity of money.

Men, like animals, naturally multiply in proportion to the means of their subsistence.

Labour was the first price, the original purchase – money that was paid for all things. It was not by gold or by silver, but by labour, that all wealth of the world was originally purchased.

Justice, however, never was in reality administered gratis in any country. Lawyers and attornies, at least, must always be paid by the parties; and, if they were not, they would perform their duty still worse than they actually perform it.

Mercantile jealousy is excited, and both inflames, and is itself inflamed, by the violence of national animosity.

Fear is often described as False Evidence Appearing Real.

I did not come into the world to prove anything. I came into the world to love everyone and everything.

What I do think is evident is that those countries in the world where Islamic extremism has recovered the most power, those are also the countries which are most disliked.

Like a theory, we were. Declared. Never proven.

If the code does indeed have some logical foundation then it is legitimate to consider all the evidence, both good and bad, in any attempt to deduce it.

It would not be impossible to prove with sufficient repetition and a psychological understanding of the people concerned that a square is in fact a circle. They are mere words, and words can be molded until they clothe ideas and disguise.

I hold that it is only when we can prove everything we assert that we understand perfectly the thing under consideration.

I don’t entirely approve of some of the things I have done, or am, or have been. But I’m me. God knows, I’m me.