I have observed, that a Reader seldom peruses a Book with Pleasure, 'till he knows whether the Writer of it be a black or a fair M...an, of a mild or cholerick Disposition, Married or a Batchelor, with other Particulars of the like nature, that conduce very much to the right understanding of an Author.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It would much conduce to the public benefit, if, instead of discouraging free-thinking, there was erected in the midst of this fre...e country a dianoetic academy, or seminary for free-thinkers, provided with retired chambers, and galleries, and shady walks and groves, where, after seven years spent in silence and meditation, a man might commence a genuine free-thinker, and from that time forward, have license to think what he pleased, and a badge to distinguish him from counterfeits.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
And now behold the goddess seated on her throne ... receiving the adulation of her worshipper.... An adulation, which translated i...nto plain English means no more than an address of the following kind: "Madam, I like you (no matter whether from fortune, person, or any other motive) and it will conduce much to my pleasure and convenience if you will become my wife: that is, if you will bind yourself before God and man to obey my commands as long as I shall live. And should you after marriage be forgetful of your duty, you will then have given me a legal power of exacting as rigid a performance of it as I shall please."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
[Necessity is] the sum of all things, which being now existent, conduce and concur to the production of that action hereafter, whe...reof if any one thing now were wanting, the effect could not be produced. This concourse of causes, whereof every one is determined to be such as it is by a like concourse of former causes, may well be called (in respect they were all set and ordered by the eternal causes of all things, God Almighty) the decree of God.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The reasons you allege do more conduce To the hot passion of distempered blood... Than to make up a free determination 'Twixt right and wrong; for pleasure and revenge Have ears more deaf than adders to the voice Of any true decision.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Mixed dinner parties of ladies and gentlemen ... are very rare, which is a great defect in the society; not only as depriving them... of the most social and hospitable manner of meeting, but as leading to frequent dinner parties of gentlemen without ladies, which certainly does not conduce to refinement.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »