In philosophy, when we make use of false principles, we depart the farther from the knowledge of truth and wisdom exactly in proportion to the care with which we cultivate them, and apply ourselves to the deduction of diverse consequences from them, thinking that we are philosophizing well, while we are only departing the farther from the truth; from which it must be inferred that they who have learned the least of all that has been hitherto distinguished by the name of philosophy are the most fitted for the apprehension of truth.

The only thing that I know, is that I know nothing

For each of us there is a set limit to our intellectual powers which we cannot pass.

So far, I have been a spectator in this theater which is the world, but I am now about to mount the stage, and I come forward masked.

Reason is nothing without imagination.

This result could have been achieved either by his [God] endowing my intellect with a clear and distinct perception of everything about which I would ever deliberate, or simply by impressing the following rule so firmly upon my memory that I could never forget it: I should never judge anything that I do not clearly and distinctly understand.

Whenever anyone has offended me, I try to raise my soul so high that the offense cannot reach it.