Perfect clarity would profit the intellect but damage the will. Those who are accustomed to judge by feeling do not understand the process of reasoning, because they want to comprehend at a glance and are not used to seeking for first principles. Those, on the other hand, who are accustomed to reason from first principles do not understand matters of feeling at all, because they look for first principles and are unable to comprehend at a glance. To deny, to believe, and to doubt well are to a man as the race is to a horse. Words differently arranged have a different meaning and meanings differently arranged have a different effect.
Nature is an infinite sphere of which the center is everywhere and the circumference nowhere.
We arrive at truth, not by reason only, but also by the heart. When the passions become masters, they are vices. Religion is so great a thing that it is right that those who will not take the trouble to seek it if it be obscure, should be deprived of it. It is not certain that everything is uncertain. We are so presumptuous that we should like to be known all over the world, even by people who will only come when we are no more.