If anyone conceives that he is loved by another, and believes that he has given no cause for such love, he will love that other in return.

I believe that a triangle, if it could speak, would say that God is eminently triangular, and a circle that the divine nature is eminently circular; and thus would every one ascribe his own attributes to God.

Blessedness is not the reward of virtue but virtue itself.

Things could not have been brought into being by God in any manner or in any order different from that which has in fact obtained.

Freedom is self-determination.

I make this chief distinction between religion and superstition, that the latter is founded on ignorance, the former on knowledge.

Men would never be superstitious, if they could govern all their circumstances by set rules, or if they were always favoured by fortune: but being frequently driven into straits where rules are useless, and being often kept fluctuating pitiably between hope and fear by the uncertainty of fortune's greedily coveted favours, they are consequently for the most part, very prone to credulity.