If slavery, barbarism and desolation are to be called peace, men can have no worse misfortune.

Nothing in the universe is contingent, but all things are conditioned to exist and operate in a particular manner by the necessity of the divine nature.

Self-complacency is pleasure accompanied by the idea of oneself as cause.

Surely human affairs would be far happier if the power in men to be silent were the same as that to speak.

He who hates anyone will endeavor to do him an injury, unless he fears that a greater injury will thereby accrue to himself; on the other hand, he who loves anyone will, by the same law, seek to benefit him.

All the objects pursued by the multitude not only bring no remedy that tends to preserve our being, but even act as hinderances, causing the death not seldom of those who possess them, and always of those who are possessed by them.

Everything great is just as difficult to realize as it is rare to find.