Joseph Butler

“But to us, probability is the very guide of life.”

“Compassion is a call, a demand of nature, to relieve the unhappy as hunger is a natural call for food.”

“Thus there is no doubt the eye was intended for us to see with.”

“The sum of the whole is plainly this: The nature of man considered in his single capacity, and with respect only to the present world, is adapted and leads him to attain the greatest happiness he can for himself in the present world.”

“Happiness does not consist in self-love.”

“Happiness or satisfaction consists only in the enjoyment of those objects which are by nature suited to our several particular appetites, passions, and affections.”

“As this world was not intended to be a state of any great satisfaction or high enjoyment, so neither was it intended to be a mere scene of unhappiness and sorrow.”

“Every man is to be considered in two capacities, the private and public; as designed to pursue his own interest, and likewise to contribute to the good of others.”

“There is a much more exact correspondence between the natural and moral world than we are apt to take notice of.”

“The object of self-love is expressed in the term self; and every appetite of sense, and every particular affection of the heart, are equally interested or disinterested, because the objects of them all are equally self or somewhat else.”

“Every man hath a general desire of his own happiness; and likewise a variety of particular affections, passions, and appetites to particular external objects.”