I have striven not to laugh at human actions, not to weep at them, nor to hate them, but to understand them.
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.
Freedom is absolutely necessary for the progress in science and the liberal arts.
Men govern nothing with more difficulty than their tongues, and can moderate their desires more than their words.
Only that thing is free which exists by the necessities of its own nature, and is determined in its actions by itself alone.
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.
I call him free who is led solely by reason.
Whatsoever is contrary to nature is contrary to reason, and whatsoever is contrary to reason is absurd.