Sin cannot be conceived in a natural state, but only in a civil state, where it is decreed by common consent what is good or bad

Pride is pleasure arising from a man's thinking too highly of himself

Peace is not the absence of war, but a virtue based on strength of character

Happiness is a virtue, not its reward

All happiness or unhappiness solely depends upon the quality of the object to which we are attached by love

God is the indwelling and not the transient cause of all things

Freedom is absolutely necessary for the progress in science and the liberal arts

The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free

So long as a man imagines that he cannot do this or that, so long as he is determined not to do it; and consequently so long as it is impossible to him that he should do it

Men govern nothing with more difficulty than their tongues, and can moderate their desires more than their words