So long as man is protected by madness - he functions - and flourishes.
Opinion of ghosts, ignorance of second causes, devotion to what men fear, and talking of things casual for prognostics, consisteth the natural seeds of religion
Felicity is a continual progress of the desire from one object to another, the attaining of the former being still but the way to the latter.
I put for the general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death.
A man cannot lay down the right of resisting them that assault him by force, to take away his life.
What reason is there that he which laboreth much, and, sparing the fruits of his labor, consumeth little, should be more charged than he that, living idly, getteth little and spendeth all he gets, seeing the one hath no more protection from the commonwealth than the other?
If men are naturally in a state of war, why do they always carry arms and why do they have keys to lock their doors?
It seems too easy to lie in the moment but you always have to tell more lies on top of it to cover your tracks.
We are writers. We danced with words, as children, in what became familiar patterns. The words became our friends and our companions, and without even saying it aloud, a thought danced with them: I can do this. This is who I am.
It is just observation that the people commonly intend the Public Good.
I always remember that whatever I have done in the past or may do in the future, Duke University is responsible in one way or another.