There Is No Greater Impediment To The

In Every Chain Of Reasoning, The Evidence Of The Last Conclusion Can Be No Greater Than That Of The Weakest Link Of The Chain, Whatever May Be The Strength Of The Rest.

There Is No Greater Impediment To The Advancement Of Knowledge Than The Ambiguity Of Words. To This Chiefly It Is Owing That We Find Sects And Parties In Most Branches Of Science [and Politics]; And Disputes That Are Carried On From Age To Age, Without Being Brought To Issue.

The Laws Of Nature Are The Rules According To Which The Effects Are Produced; But There Must Be A Cause Which Operates According To These Rules. The Laws Of Navigation Never Navigated A Ship. The Rules Of Architecture Never Built A House.

It Appears Evident, Therefore, That Those Actions Only Can Truly Be Called Virtuous, And Deserving Of Moral Approbation, Which The Agent Believed To Be Right, And To Which He Was Influenced, More Or Less, By That Belief.

Every Man Feels That Perception Gives Him An Invincible Belief Of The Existence Of That Which He Perceives; And That This Belief Is Not The Effect Of Reasoning, But The Immediate Consequence Of Perception. When Philosophers Have Wearied Themselves And Their Readers With Their Speculations Upon This Subject, They Can Neither Strengthen This Belief, Nor Weaken It; Nor Can They Shew How It Is Produced. It Puts The Philosopher And The Peasant Upon A Level; And Neither Of Them Can Give Any Other Reason For Believing His Senses, Than That He Finds It Impossible For Him To Do Otherwise.