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

I would warn you that I do not attribute to nature either beauty or deformity, order or confusion. Only in relation to our imagination can things be called beautiful or ugly, well-ordered or confused.

self-preservation is the primary and only foundation of virtue.

Philosophers conceive of the passions which harass us as vices into which men fall by their own fault, and, therefore, generally deride, bewail, or blame them, or execrate them, if they wish to seem unusually pious.

A good thing which prevents us from enjoying a greater good is in truth an evil.

Surely human affairs would be far happier if the power in men to be silent were the same as that to speak.

I do not believe anyone has reached such perfection, surpassing all others, except Christ, to whom God immediately revealed - without words or visions - the conditions which lead to salvation.