"It's not at all uncommon to find a person's desires compelling him to go against his reason, and to see him cursing himself and venting his passion on the source of the compulsion within him. It's as if there were two warring factions, with passion fighting on the side of reason."

"This world is indeed a living being endowed with a soul and intelligence ... a single visible living entity containing all other living entities, which by their nature are all related."

"Certainly we shall have to look to ourselves, and try to find someone who will help in some way or other to improve us."

"Most men in power become villains."

"They cross-examine a man’s words, when he thinks that he is saying something and is really saying nothing, and easily convict him of inconsistencies in his opinions; these they then collect by the dialectical process, and placing them side by side, show that they contradict one another about the same things, in relation to the same things, and in the same respect. He, seeing this, is angry with himself, and grows gentle towards others, and thus is entirely delivered from great prejudices and harsh notions, in a way which is most amusing to the hearer, and produces the most lasting good effect on the person who is the subject of the operation."

"Atheism is a disease of the soul before it becomes an error of understanding."

"All learning has an emotional base."

"No wealth can ever make a bad man at peace with himself."

"Philosophy is an elegant thing, if anyone modestly meddles with it, but if they are conversant with it more than is becoming, it corrupts them."

"If a man neglects education, he walks lame to the end of his life."