The universe is but one great city, full of beloved ones, divine and human, by nature endeared to each other.

Freedom isn't the right or ability to do whatever you please. Freedom comes from understanding the limits of our own power and the inherent limits set in place by nature. By accepting life's limits and inevitabilities and working with them rather than fighting them, you become truly free.

What is it that every man seeks? To be secure, to be happy, to do what he pleases without restraint and without compulsion.

You are a principal work, a fragment of [Goddess herself], you have in yourself a part of [her]. Why then are you ignorant of your high birth?

What else can I do, a lame old man, but sing hymns to God? If I were a nightingale, I would do the nightingale's part; if I were a swan, I would do as a swan. But now I am a rational creature, and I ought to praise God. This is my work. I do it, nor will I desert my post, so long as I am allowed to keep it. And I ask you to join me in this same song.

Freedom is not procured by a full enjoyment of what is desired, but by controlling the desire.

First tell yourself what you want to be, then do what you need to do.