“Peace is not the absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition of benevolence, confidence, justice.”

“Blessedness is not the reward of virtue, but virtue itself.”

“Better that right counsels be known to enemies than that the evil secrets of tyrants should be concealed from the citizens. They who can treat secretly of the affairs of a nation have it absolutely under their authority; and as they plot against the enemy in time of war, so do they against the citizens in time of peace.”

“self-preservation is the primary and only foundation of virtue.”

“The endeavor to understand is the first and only basis of virtue.”

“I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of the peace.”

“The less the mind understands and the more things it perceives, the greater its power of feigning is; and the more things it understands, the more that power is diminished.”