The Corruption Of The Best Things Gives

[the Sceptic] Must Acknowledge, If He Will Acknowledge Any Thing, That All Human Life Must Perish, Were His Principles To Prevail.all Discourse, All Action Would Immediately Cease, And Men Remain In A Total Lethargy, Till The Necessities Of Nature, Unsatisfied, Put An End To Their Miserable Existence.

Upon The Whole, Necessity Is Something, That Exists In The Mind, Not In Objects; Nor Is It Possible For Us Ever To Form The Most Distant Idea Of It, Consider'd As A Quality In Bodies. Either We Have No Idea Of Necessity, Or Necessity Is Nothing But That Determination Of Thought To Pass From Cause To Effects And Effects To Causes, According To Their Experienc'd Union.

Do You Come To A Philosopher As To A Cunning Man, To Learn Something By Magic Or Witchcraft, Beyond What Can Be Known By Common Prudence And Discretion?

Obscurity, Indeed, Is Painful To The Mind As Well As To The Eye; But To Bring Light From Obscurity, By Whatever Labour, Must Needsbe Delightful And Rejoicing.

It Is Not Contrary To Reason To Prefer The Destruction Of The Whole World To The Scratching Of My Finger.