Joseph Priestley

“The more elaborate our means of communication, the less we communicate.”

“In completing one discovery we never fail to get an imperfect knowledge of others of which we could have no idea before, so that we cannot solve one doubt without creating several new ones.”

“The good and happiness of the members, that is the society, is the great standard by which every thing relating to that state must finally be determined.”

“We are, as it were, laying gunpowder, grain by grain, under the old building of error and superstition, which a single spark may hereafter inflame, so as to produce an instantaneous explosion.”

“What I have known with respect to myself, has tended much to lessen both my admiration, and my contempt, of others.”

“A philosopher ought to be the first to leap into a pit or a gulf.”

“The greatest discoveries are made by giving attention to the small things which might have been overlooked by others.”

“It is a happy circumstance in human life, that a man may fail in many things, and yet be successful in others.”

“The welfare of the society is the ultimate end of all government.”

“Too much happiness, I have heard a philosopher say, is a bore.”

“Let a man be a Christian, a philosopher, or what he will, he will find it an advantage to be a man of business.”