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

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

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

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

“The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free.”

“everyone endeavors as much as possible to make others love what he loves, and to hate what he hates... This effort to make everyone approve what we love or hate is in truth ambition, and so we see that each person by nature desires that other persons should live according to his way of thinking...”

“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.”