Many errors, of a truth, consist merely in the application of the wrong names of things. For if a man says that the lines which are drawn from the centre of the circle to the circumference are not equal, he understands by the circle, at all events for the time, something else than mathematicians understand by it.

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.

I can control my passions and emotions if I can understand their nature

The greatest good is the knowledge of the union which the mind has with the whole nature.

The endeavor to understand is the first and only basis of virtue.

He who loves God cannot endeavor that God should love him in return.

Desire is the essence of a man.