the ultimate aim of government is not to rule, or restrain by fear, nor to exact obedience, but to free every man from fear that he may live in all possible security... In fact the true aim of government is liberty.

Schisms do not originate in a love of truth, which is a source of courtesy and gentleness, but rather in an inordinate desire for supremacy.

In the state of nature, wrong-doing is impossible ; or, if anyone does wrong, it is to himself, not to another.

Those who are believed to be most abject and humble are usually most ambitious and envious.

The highest endeavor of the mind, and the highest virtue, it to understand things by intuition.

I saw that all things I feared, and which feared me, had nothing good or bad in them save insofar as the mind was affected by them.

Reason connot defeat emotion, an emotion can only be displaced or overcome by a stronger emotion.