“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, except in so far as the mind is affected by them, I finally resolved to inquire whether there might be some real good having power to communicate itself, which would affect the mind singly, to the exclusion of all else: whether, in fact, there might be anything of which the discovery and attainment would enable me to enjoy continuous, supreme, and unending happiness.”

“He alone is free who lives with free consent under the entire guidance of reason.”

“The world would be happier if men had the same capacity to be silent that they have to speak.”

“Do not weep do not wax indignant. Understand. ”

“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.”

“Those who are believed to be most abject and humble are usually most ambitious and envious.”

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

“God is the indwelling and not the transient cause of all things.”

“Ambition is the immoderate desire for power.”

“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.”

“Happiness is a virtue, not its reward.”