Yet nature cannot be contravened, but preserves a fixed and immutable order.

As men's habits of mind differ, so that some more readily embrace one form of faith, some another, for what moves one to pray may move another to scoff, I conclude ... that everyone should be free to choose for himself the foundations of his creed, and that faith should be judged only by its fruits.

The more you struggle to live, the less you live. Give up the notion that you must be sure of what you are doing. Instead, surrender to what is real within you, for that alone is sure....you are above everything distressing.

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

Love or hatred towards a thing, which we conceive to be free, must, other things being similar, be greater than if it were felt towards a thing acting by necessity.

Minds are not conquered by force, but by love and high-mindedness.

Love is nothing but joy accompanied with the idea of an eternal cause.