I Am Ready To Reject All Belief

No Conclusions Can Be More Agreeable To Scepticism Than Such As Make Discoveries Concerning The Weakness And Narrow Limits Of Human Reason And Capacity.

It Is Not Contrary To Reason To Prefer The Destruction Of The Whole World To The Scratching Of My Finger. It Is Not Contrary To Reason For Me To Choose My Total Ruin, To Prevent The Least Uneasiness Of An Indian, Or Person Wholly Unknown To Me. It Is As Little Contrary To Reason To Prefer Even My Own Acknowledged Lesser Good To My Greater, And Have A More Ardent Affection For The Former Than The Latter.

The Advantages Found In History Seem To Be Of Three Kinds, As It Amuses The Fancy, As It Improves The Understanding, And As It Strengthens Virtue.

Avarice, The Spur Of Industry, Is So Obstinate A Passion, And Works Its Way Through So Many Real Dangers And Difficulties, That It Is Not Likely To Be Scared By An Imaginary Danger, Which Is So Small, That It Scarcely Admits Of Calculation. Commerce, Therefore, In My Opinion, Is Apt To Decay In Absolute Governments, Not Because It Is There Less Secure, But Because It Is Less Honourable.

Luxury, Or A Refinement On The Pleasures And Conveniences Of Life, Had Long Been Supposed The Source Of Every Corruption In Government, And The Immediate Cause Of Faction, Sedition, Civil Wars, And The Total Loss Of Liberty. It Was, Therefore, Universally Regarded As A Vice, And Was An Object Of Declamation To All Satyrists, And Severe Moralists.