The theologian considers sin mainly as an offence against God; the moral philosopher as contrary to reasonableness.

Most men seem to live according to sense rather than reason.

The greatest kindness one can render to any man consists in leading him from error to truth.

The highest manifestation of life consists in this: that a being governs its own actions. A thing which is always subject to the direction of another is somewhat of a dead thing.

If a man deliberately abstains from wine to such an extent that he does serious harm to his nature, he will not be free from blame.

All my words are but chaff next to the faith of a simple man.

Evil denotes the lack of good. Not every absence of good is an evil, for absence may be taken either in a purely negative or in aprivative sense. Mere negation does not display the character of evil, otherwise nonexistents would be evil and moreover, a thing would be evil for not possessing the goodness of something else, which would mean that man is bad for not having the strength of a lion or the speed of a wild goat. But what is evil is privation; in this sense blindness means the privation of sight.