Vague and mysterious forms of speech, and abuse of language, have so long passed for mysteries of science; and hard or misapplied words with little or no meaning have, by prescription, such a right to be mistaken for deep learning and height of speculation, that it will not be easy to persuade either those who speak or those who hear them, that they are but the covers of ignorance and hindrance of true knowledge.
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There cannot be greater rudeness than to interrupt another in the current of his discourse.
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Reading furnishes the mind only with material for knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.
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We should have a great many fewer disputes in the world if words were taken for what they are, the signs of our ideas only, and not for things themselves.
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Fashion for the most part is nothing but the ostentation of riches.
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No man's knowledge here can go beyond his experience.
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Till a man can judge whether they be truths or not, his understanding is but little improved, and thus men of much reading, though greatly learned, but may be little knowing.
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New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.
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Every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has a right to, but himself.
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The discipline of desire is the background of character.
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The only fence against the world is a thorough knowledge of it.
