Concupiscence and force are the source of all our actions; concupiscence causes voluntary actions, force involuntary ones.

There is a certain standard of grace and beauty which consists in a certain relation between our nature, such as it is, weak or strong, and the thing which pleases us. Whatever is formed according to this standard pleases us, be it house, song, discourse, verse, prose, woman, birds, rivers, trees, room, dress, and so on. Whatever is not made according to this standard displeases those who have good taste.

To ridicule philosophy is really to philosophize.

Who knows if this other half of life where we think we're awake is not another sleep a little different from the first.

If he exalts himself, I humble him. If he humbles himself, I exalt him. And I go on contradicting him Until he understands That he is a monster that passes all understanding.

Piety is different from superstition. To carry piety to the extent of superstition is to destroy it. The heretics reproach us with this superstitious submission. It is doing what they reproach us with.

Nature is an infinite sphere of which the center is everywhere and the circumference nowhere.