Many Things, For Aught I Know, May

I Had Rather Be An Oyster Than A Man, The Most Stupid And Senseless Of Animals.

So Long As I Confine My Thoughts To My Own Ideas Divested Of Words, I Do Not See How I Can Be Easily Mistaken.

Did Men But Consider That The Sun, Moon, And Stars, And Every Other Object Of The Senses, Are Only So Many Sensations In Their Minds, Which Have No Other Existence But Barely Being Perceived, Doubtless They Would Never Fall Down And Worship Their Own Ideas; But Rather Address Their Homage To That Eternal Invisible Mind Which Produces And Sustains All Things.

I Do Not Deny The Existence Of Material Substance Merely Because I Have No Notion Of It, But Because The Notion Of It Is Inconsistent, Or In Other Words, Because It Is Repugnant That There Should Be A Notion Of It.

Westward The Course Of Empire Takes Its Way; The Four First Acts Already Past, A Fifth Shall Close The Drama With The Day: Time's Noblest Offspring Is The Last.