The Stoic assures us that what is happening now will happen over and over again. [If so, Providende would] ultimately grow weary through despair.

We are ... led to a somewhat vague distinction between what we may call "hard" data and "soft" data. This distinction is a matter of degree, and must not be pressed; but if not taken too seriously it may help to make the situation clear. I mean by "hard" data those which resist the solvent influence of critical reflection, and by "soft" data those which, under the operation of this process, become to our minds more or less doubtful.

God and Satan alike are essentially human figures, the one a projection of ourselves, the other of our enemies.

Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.

A happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy dare live.

Right conduct can never, except by some rare accident, be promoted by ignorance or hindered by knowledge.

The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it.