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“Two great European narcotics, alcohol and Christianity.”

“No profit whatever can possibly be made but at the expense of another. . . . The Merchant only thrives, and grows rich, by the pride, wantonness and debauchery of youth; the husbandman by the price and scarcity of grain; the architect by the ruin of buildings; lawyers, and officers of Justice, by the suits and contentions of men; nay even the honor and office of Divines are derived from our death and vices. A physician takes no pleasure in the health even of his friends . . . nor a soldier in the peace of his country and so of the rest.”

““The stronger your self-understanding is, the greater your probability of adapting to the people around you.””

“The true artist will let his wife starve, his children go barefoot, his mother drudge for a living at seventy, sooner than work at anything but his art.”

““Let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened:—Behold! human beings living in a underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets.””