Except God no substance can be granted or conceived. .. Everything, I say, is in God, and all things which are made, are made by the laws of the infinite nature of God, and necessarily follows from the necessity of his essence.

There is no fear without some hope, and no hope without some fear.

If we conceive that anyone loves, desires, or hates anything which we ourselves love, desire, or hate, we shall thereupon regard the thing in question with more steadfast love, etc. On the contrary, if we think that anyone shrinks from something that we love, we shall undergo vacillation of the soul.

He who has a true idea, knows at that same time that he has a true idea, nor can he doubt concerning the truth of the thing.

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

Superstition, then, is engendered, preserved, and fostered by fear.

To comprehend an idea, a person must simultaneously accept it as true. Conscious analysis - which, depending on the idea, may occur almost immediately or with considerable effort - allows the mind to reject what it intially accepted as fact.