Human infirmity in moderating and checking the emotions I name bondage : for, when a man is a prey to his emotions, he is not his own master, but lies at the mercy of fortune : so much so, that he is often compelled, while seeing that which is better for him, to follow that which is worse.

Whatsoever is contrary to nature is contrary to reason, and whatsoever is contrary to reason is absurd.

Only that thing is free which exists by the necessities of its own nature, and is determined in its actions by itself alone.

Big fish eat small fish with as much right as they have power.

I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of established religion.

Nothing in nature is by chance... Something appears to be chance only because of our lack of knowledge.

If men were born free, they would, so long as they remained free, form no conception of good and evil.