Fear sometimes adds wings to the heels, and sometimes nails them to the ground, and fetters them from moving.

A man must keep a little back shop where he can be himself without reserve. In solitude alone can he know true freedom.

While our pulse beats and we feel emotion, let us put off the business. Things will truly seem different to us when we have quieted and cooled down. It is passion that is in command at first, it is passion that speaks, it is not we ourselves.

Praise is always pleasing, let it come from whom, or upon what account it will.

Of all human and ancient opinions concerning religion, that seems to me the most likely and most excusable, that acknowledged God as an incomprehensible power, the original and preserver of all things, all goodness, all perfection, receiving and taking in good part the honour and reverence that man paid him, under what method, name, or ceremonies soever.

The dispersing and scattering our names into many mouths, we call making them more great.

It is a monstrous thing that I will say, but I will say it all the same: I find in many things more restraint and order in my morals than in my opinions, and my lust less depraved than my reason.