Because reason...is the only thing that makes us men, and distinguishes us from the beasts, I would prefer to believe that it exists, in its entirety….

You just keep pushing. You just keep pushing. I made every mistake that could be made. But I just kept pushing..

I am indeed amazed when I consider how weak my mind is and how prone to error..

I desire to live in peace and to continue the life I have begun under the motto 'to live well you must live unseen.

Illusory joy is often worth more than genuine sorrow..

It's the familiar love-hate syndrome of seduction: "I don't really care what it is I say, I care only that you like it.".

Variant: When it is not in our power to follow what is true, we ought to follow what is most probable..

Hence reason also demands that, since our thoughts cannot all be true because we are not wholly perfect, what truth they do possess must inevitably b….

My third maxim was to try always to conquer myself rather than fortune, and to change my desires rather than the order of the world, and generally to….

There is nothing more ancient than the truth..

If we possessed a thorough knowledge of all the parts of the seed of any animal (e.g. man), we could from that alone, be reasons entirely mathematica….

The two operations of our understanding, intuition and deduction, on which alone we have said we must rely in the acquisition of knowledge..

The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries..

The only thing we have power over in the universe is our own thoughts..

Whenever anyone has offended me, I try to raise my soul so high that the offense cannot reach it..

The nature of matter, or body considered in general, consists not in its being something which is hard or heavy or coloured, or which affects the sen….

De omnibus dubitandum.

The greatest minds, as they are capable of the highest excellencies, are open likewise to the greatest aberrations; and those who travel very slowly ….

In order to improve the mind, we ought less to learn, than to contemplate..

And as it is the most generous souls who have most gratitude, it is those who have most pride, and who are most base and infirm, who most allow thems….

Desire awakens only to things that are thought possible..