“Sin cannot be conceived in a natural state, but only in a civil state, where it is decreed by common consent what is good or bad.”

“Whatsoever is, is in God, and without God nothing can be, or be conceived.”

“Things which are accidentally the causes either of hope or fear are called good or evil omens.”

“The good which every man, who follows after virtue, desires for himself he will also desire for other men...”

“I should attempt to treat human vice and folly geometrically... the passions of hatred, anger, envy, and so on, considered in themselves, follow from the necessity and efficacy of nature......”

“Those who wish to seek out the cause of miracles and to understand the things of nature as philosophers, and not to stare at them in astonishment like fools, are soon considered heretical an...”

“Principles are only tools in the hands of God; they will soon be thrown away when they are no longer useful.”

“Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it.”