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

Human infirmity in moderating and checking the emotions I name bondage : for, when a man is a prey to his emotions, he is not his own master, but lies at the mercy of fortune : so much so, that he is often compelled, while seeing that which is better for him, to follow that which is worse.

In the mind there is no absolute or free will; but the mind is determined to wish this or that by a cause, which has also been determined by another cause, and this last by another cause, and so on to infinity.

True knowledge of good and evil as we possess is merely abstract or general, and the judgment which we pass on the order of things and the connection of causes, with a view to determining what is good or bad for us in the present, is rather imaginary than real.

self-preservation is the primary and only foundation of virtue.

A free man thinks of nothing less than of death; and his wisdom is a meditation not on death but on life.

Blessed are the weak who think that they are good because they have no claws.