The first law that ever God gave to man was a law of pure obedience; it was a commandment naked and simple, wherein man had nothing to inquire after, or to dispute, forasmuch as to obey is the proper office of a rational soul, acknowledging a heavenly superior and benefactor. From obedience and submission spring all other virtues, as all sin does from self-opinion.

I see men ordinarily more eager to discover a reason for things than to find out whether the things are so.

A man must always study, but he must not always go to school: what a contemptible thing is an old abecedarian!

There are no truths, only moments of claryty passing for answers.

A man may by custom fortify himself against pain, shame, and suchlike accidents; but as to death, we can experience it but once, and are all apprentices when we come to it

We need to interpret interpretations more than to interpret things.

The least strained and most natural ways of the soul are the most beautiful; the best occupations are the least forced.