The Ages Of Greatest Public Spirit Are

All The Sciences Have A Relation, Greater Or Less, To Human Nature; And...however Wide Any Of Them May Seem To Run From It, They Still Return Back By One Passage Or Another. Even Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, And Natural Religion, Are In Some Measure Dependent On The Science Of Man; Since They Lie Under The Cognizance Of Men, And Are Judged Of By Their Powers And Faculties.

I Say Then, That Belief Is Nothing But A More Vivid, Lively, Forcible, Firm, Steady Conception Of An Object, Than What The Imagination Alone Is Ever Able To Attain. This Variety Of Terms, Which May Seem So Unphilosophical, Is Intended Only To Express That Act Of The Mind, Which Renders Realities, Or What Is Taken For Such, More Present To Us Than Fictions, Causes Them To Weigh More In The Thought, And Gives Them A Superior Influence On The Passions And Imagination.

Even After The Observation Of The Frequent Conjunction Of Objects, We Have No Reason To Draw Any Inference Concerning Any Object Beyond Those Of Which We Have Had Experience.

I Never Asserted Such An Absurd Thing As That Things Arise Without A Cause.

A Man Posing For A Painting.