'Tis the hardest thing in the world to be a good Thinker, without being a strong Self-Examiner. - Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury

Truly … as accidental as my Life may be, or as that random Humour is, which governs it; I know nothing, after all, so real or substantial as My-Self. Therefore if there be that Thing you call a Substance, I take for granted I am one. But for anything further relating to this Question, you know my Sceptick Principles: I determine neither way.

Truth is the most powerful thing in the world, since even fiction itself must be governed by it, and can only please by its resemblance.

Truth, 'tis suppos'd, may bear all Lights: and one of those principal Lights or natural Mediums, by which Things are to be view'd, in order to a thorow Recognition, is Ridicule it-self, or that Manner of Proof by which we discern whatever is liable to just Raillery in any Subject.