Desire is the essence of a man.

The greatest secret of monarchic rule...is to keep men deceived and to cloak in the specious name of religion the fear by which they must be checked, so that they will fight for slavery as they would for salvation, and will think it not shameful, but a most honorable achievement, to give their life and blood that one man may have a ground for boasting.

Superstition, then, is engendered, preserved, and fostered by fear.

Those who know the true use of money, and regulate the measure of wealth according to their needs, live contented with few things.

He that can carp in the most eloquent or acute manner at the weakness of the human mind is held by his fellows as almost divine.

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.

Things could not have been brought into being by God in any manner or in any order different from that which has in fact obtained.