When a thoughtful human being has overcome incentives to vice and is aware of having done his bitter duty, he finds himself in a state that could be called happiness, a state of contentment and peace of mind in which virtue is its own reward.

Give me matter, and I will construct a world out of it!

[A ruler is merely] the trustee of the rights of other men and he must always stand in dread of having in some way violated these rights.

Honesty is better than any policy.

Men will not understand ... that when they fulfil their duties to men, they fulfil thereby God's commandments; that they are consequently always in the service of God, as long as their actions are moral, and that it is absolutely impossible to serve God otherwise.

The science of mathematics presents the most brilliant example of how pure reason may successfully enlarge its domain without the aid of experience

Beneficence is a duty.