The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free.
I call him free who is led solely by reason.
When a man is prey to his emotions, he is not his own master.
I would warn you that I do not attribute to nature either beauty or deformity, order or confusion. Only in relation to our imagination can things be called beautiful or ugly, well-ordered or confused.
It may easily come to pass that a vain man may become proud and imagine himself pleasing to all when he is in reality a universal nuisance.
For peace is not mere absence of war, but is a virtue that springs from, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.
One and the same thing can at the same time be good, bad, and indifferent, e.g., music is good to the melancholy, bad to those who mourn, and neither good nor bad to the deaf.
Things which are accidentally the causes either of hope or fear are called good or evil omens.
To give aid to every poor man is far beyond the reach and power of every man. Care of the poor is incumbent on society as a whole.
Whatsoever is contrary to nature is contrary to reason, and whatsoever is contrary to reason is absurd.
The more clearly you understand yourself and your emotions, the more you become a lover of what is.
Faith is nothing but obedience and piety.
Even more, in the created thing, is a perfection that she exists; since the greatest of all imperfections is, not to exist.
the ultimate aim of government is not to rule, or restrain by fear, nor to exact obedience, but to free every man from fear that he may live in all possible security... In fact the true aim of governm...
Peace is not the absence of war, but a virtue based on strength of character.
After experience had taught me that all the usual surroundings of social life are vain and futile; seeing that none of the objects of my fears contained in themselves anything either good or bad, exce...
We can always get along better by reason and love of truth than by worry of conscience and remorse. Harmful are these and evil.
In proportion as we endeavor to live according to the guidance of reason, shall we strive as much as possible to depend less on hope, to liberate ourselves from fear, to rule fortune, and to direct ou...
The formation of society serves not only for defensive purposes, but is also very useful, and, indeed, absolutely necessary, as rendering possible the division of labor. If men did not render mutual a...
Such things as are good simply because they have been commanded or instituted, or as being symbols of something good, are mere shadows which cannot be reckoned among actions that are the offspring, as...