The greatest good is the knowledge of the union which the mind has with the whole nature.

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

Everyone endeavors as much as possible to make others love what he loves, and to hate what he hates... This effort to make everyone approve what we love or hate is in truth ambition, and so we see that each person by nature desires that other persons should live according to his way of thinking.

Men will find that they can ... avoid far more easily the perils which beset them on all sides by united action.

Happiness is not the reward of virtue, but is virtue itself; nor do we delight in happiness because we restrain from our lusts; but on the contrary, because we delight in it, therefore we are able to restrain them.

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

Simply from the fact that we have regarded a thing with the emotion of pleasure or pain, though that thing be not the efficient cause of the emotion, we can either love or hate it.