The supreme mystery of despotism, its prop and stay, is to keep men in a state of deception, and with the specious title of religion to cloak the fear by which they must be held in check, so that they will fight for their servitude as if for salvation.

The idea, which constitutes the actual being of the human mind, is not simple, but compounded of a great number of ideas.

Fear cannot be without hope nor hope without fear.

He who seeks to regulate everything by law is more likely to arouse vices than to reform them. It is best to grant what cannot be abolished, even though it be in itself harmful. How many evils spring from luxury, envy, avarice, drunkenness and the like, yet these are tolerated because they cannot be prevented by legal enactments.

Academies that are founded at public expense are instituted not so much to cultivate men's natural abilities as to restrain them.

Sadness diminishes a man's powers

We strive to further the occurrence of whatever we imagine will lead to Joy, and to avert or destroy what we imagine is contrary to it, or will lead to Sadness.