To judge the appearances we receive of things, we should need a judicatory instrument; to verify this instrument, we should need a demonstration; to rectify this demonstration, we should need an instrument: so here we are arguing in a circle. Seeing the senses cannot decide our dispute, being themselves full of uncertainty, we must have recourse to Reason; there is no reason but must be built upon another reason, so here we are retreating backwards to all eternity. Essays

This monster of a land, this mightiest of nations, this spawn of the future, turns out to be the macrocosm of microcosm me. Travels with Charley: In Search of America

"Men's natures are alike, it is their habits that carry them far apart." The Analects of Confucius

Nothing earthly succeeds by ignoring heaven, nothing heavenly by ignoring the earth.  Book III