Statesman are suspected of plotting against mankind, rather than consulting their interests, and are esteemed more crafty than learned.

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.

Whatsoever is, is in God.

The greater emotion with which we conceive a loved object to be affected toward us, the greater will be our complacency.

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

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

All the objects pursued by the multitude not only bring no remedy that tends to preserve our being, but even act as hinderances, causing the death not seldom of those who possess them, and always of those who are possessed by them.