The soul is... but an empty word, of which no one has any idea, and which an enlightened man should use only to signify the part in us that thinks...

[H]e who has the most imagination should be regarded as having the most intelligence or genius, for all these words are synonymous...

Whatever the virtue may be, from whatever source it may come, it is worthy of esteem... Mind, beauty, wealth, nobility, although the children of chance, all have their own value, as skill, learning and virtue have theirs.

Man\'s preeminent advantage is his organism. ...Only through nature do we have any good qualities; to her we owe all that we are.