There is no hope unmingled with fear, and no fear unmingled with hope.

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

None are more taken in by flattery than the proud, who wish to be the first and are not.

Blessedness is not the reward of virtue but virtue itself.

If we love something similar to ourselves, we endeavor, as far as we can, to bring it about that it should love us in return.

The highest endeavor of the mind, and the highest virtue, it to understand things by intuition.

To comprehend an idea, a person must simultaneously accept it as true. Conscious analysis - which, depending on the idea, may occur almost immediately or with considerable effort - allows the mind to reject what it intially accepted as fact.