...The body is affected by the image of the thing, in the same way as if the thing were actually present.

We are so constituted by Nature that we easily believe the things we hope for, but believe only with difficulty those we fear, and that we regard such things more or less highly than is just. This is the source of the superstitions by which men everywhere are troubled. For the rest, I don

Fear cannot be without hope nor hope without fear.

I saw that all things I feared, and which feared me, had nothing good or bad in them save insofar as the mind was affected by them.

Nature has no goal in view, and final causes are only human imaginings.

Love or hatred towards a thing, which we conceive to be free, must, other things being similar, be greater than if it were felt towards a thing acting by necessity.

Self-complacency is pleasure accompanied by the idea of oneself as cause.