No mans error becomes his own Law; nor obliges him to persist in it.

Understanding is nothing else than conception caused by speech.

Men are not therefore put to death, or punished for that their theft proceedeth from election; but because it was noxious and contrary to men's preservation, and the punishment conducing to the preservation of the rest, inasmuch as to punish those that do voluntary hurt, and none else, frameth and maketh men's wills such as men would have them.

How could a state be governed, or protected in its foreign relations if every individual remained free to obey or not to obey the law according to his private opinion.

For it can never be that war shall preserve life, and peace destroy it.

All men, among themselves, are by nature equal. The inequality we now discern hath its spring from the civil law.

The source of every crime, is some defect of the understanding; or some error in reasoning; or some sudden force of the passions. Defect in the understanding is ignorance; in reasoning, erroneous opinion.