The Only Secure Knowledge Is That I

Now Therefore, That My Mind Is Free From All Cares, And That I Have Obtained For Myself Assured Leisure In Peaceful Solitude, I Shall Apply Myself Seriously And Freely To The General Destruction Of All My Former Opinions.

Be That As It May, There Is Fixed In My Mind A Certain Opinion Of Long Standing, Namely That There Exists A God Who Is Able To Do Anything And By Whom I, Such As I Am, Have Been Created. How Do I Know That He Did Not Bring It About That There Is No Earth At All, No Heavens, No Extended Thing, No Shape, No Size, No Place, And Yet Bringing It About That All These Things Appear To Me To Exist Precisely As They Do Now?

The Mind Effortlessly And Automatically Takes In New Ideas, Which Remain In Limbo Until Verified Or Rejected By Conscious, Rational Analysis.

I Was Convinced That Our Beliefs Are Based Much More On Custom And Example Than On Any Certain Knowledge.

Common Sense Is The Most Fairly Distributed Thing In The World, For Each One Thinks He Is So Well-endowed With It That Even Those Who Are Hardest To Satisfy In All Other Matters Are Not In The Habit Of Desiring More Of It Than They Already Have.