Happiness is not the reward of virtue, but is virtue itself; nor do we delight in happiness because we restrain from our lusts; but on the contrary, because we delight in it, therefore we are able to restrain them.

Minds are not conquered by force, but by love and high-mindedness.

Nothing in the universe is contingent, but all things are conditioned to exist and operate in a particular manner by the necessity of the divine nature.

I have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule, not to bewail, not to scorn human actions, but to understand them.

God is a thing that thinks.

Blessedness is not the reward of virtue but virtue itself.

As men's habits of mind differ, so that some more readily embrace one form of faith, some another, for what moves one to pray may move another to scoff, I conclude ... that everyone should be free to choose for himself the foundations of his creed, and that faith should be judged only by its fruits.