The most ordinary things, the most common and familiar, if we could see them in their true light, would turn out to be the grandest miracles.

Socrates thought and so do I that the wisest theory about the gods is no theory at all.

No spiritual mind remains within itself; it is always aspiring and going beyond its own strength.

To say less of yourself than is true is stupidity, not modesty. To pay yourself less than you are worth is cowardice and pusillanimity.

The common notions that we find in credit around us and infused into our souls by our fathers' seed, these seem to be the universal and natural ones. Whence it comes to pass that what is off the hinges of custom, people believe to be off the hinges of reason.

God defend me from being an honest man according to the description which every day I see made by each man to his own glorification

Honesty is a question of right and wrong, not a matter of policy