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.

The greatest good is the knowledge of the union which the mind has with the whole nature.

Man can, indeed, act contrarily to the decrees of God, as far as they have been written like laws in the minds of ourselves or the prophets, but against that eternal decree of God, which is written in universal nature, and has regard to the course of nature as a whole, he can do nothing.

God is not He who is, but That which is.

Men who are ruled by reason desire nothing for themselves which they would not wish for all mankind.

He who hates anyone will endeavor to do him an injury, unless he fears that a greater injury will thereby accrue to himself; on the other hand, he who loves anyone will, by the same law, seek to benefit him.

Fame has also this great drawback, that if we pursue it, we must direct our lives so as to please the fancy of men.