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

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

Laws which prescribe what everyone must believe, and forbid men to say or write anything against this or that opinion, are often passed to gratify, or rather to appease the anger of those who cannot abide independent minds.

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

The multitude always strains after rarities and exceptions, and thinks little of the gifts of nature; so that, when prophecy is talked of, ordinary knowledge is not supposed to be included. Nevertheless it has as much right as any other to be called Divine.

Whatsoever is contrary to nature is contrary to reason, and whatsoever is contrary to reason is absurd.

The more intelligible a thing is, the more easily it is retained in the memory, and counterwise, the less intelligible it is, the more easily we forget it.