Reason is the slow and torturous method by which those who do not know the truth discover it

Unless we love the truth we cannot know it.

Instinct teaches us to look for happiness outside ourselves.

The past and present are only our means; the future is always our end. Thus we never really live, but only hope to live.

We conceal it from ourselves in vain - we must always love something. In those matters seemingly removed from love, the feeling is secretly to be found, and man cannot possibly live for a moment without it.

No one is ignorant that there are two avenues by which opinions are received into the soul, which are its two principal powers: the understanding and the will.

Civil wars are the greatest of evils. They are inevitable, if we wish to reward merit, for all will say that they are meritorious.