I shall consider human actions and desires in exactly the same manner, as though I were concerned with lines, planes and solids.

To understand something is to be delivered of it.

Men govern nothing with more difficulty than their tongues, and can moderate their desires more than their words.

Love is nothing but joy accompanied with the idea of an eternal cause.

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

I have tried sedulously not to laugh at the acts of man, nor to lament them, nor to detest them, but to understand them.

All happiness or unhappiness solely depends upon the quality of the object to which we are attached by love.