Fame has also this great drawback, that if we pursue it, we must direct our lives so as to please the fancy of men.

In practical life we are compelled to follow what is most probable ; in speculative thought we are compelled to follow truth.

Things which are accidentally the causes either of hope or fear are called good or evil omens.

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.

I have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule, not to bewail, not to scorn human actions, but to understand them.

Whatsoever is, is in God, and without God nothing can be, or be conceived.

The things which ... are esteemed as the greatest good of all ... can be reduced to these three headings, to wit : Riches, Fame, and Pleasure. With these three the mind is so engrossed that it cannot scarcely think of any other good.