Love or hatred towards a thing, which we conceive to be free, must, other things being similar, be greater than if it were felt towards a thing acting by necessity.

Further conceive, I beg, that a stone, while continuing in motion, should be capable of thinking and knowing, that it is endeavoring, as far as it can, to continue to move. Such a stone, being conscious merely of its own endeavor and not at all indifferent, would believe itself to be completely free, and would think that it continued in motion solely because of its own wish. This is that human freedom, which all boast that they possess, and which consists solely in the fact, that men are conscious of their own desire, but are ignorant of the causes whereby that desire has been determined.

Will and intellect are one and the same thing.

I have tried sedulously not to laugh at the acts of man, nor to lament them, nor to detest them, but to understand them.

All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.

Self-complacency is pleasure accompanied by the idea of oneself as cause.

Reality and perfection are synonymous.