It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles. It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope. It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver. God is not willing to do everything, and thus take away our free will and that share of glory which belongs to us.

When I consider this carefully, I find not a single property which with certainty separates the waking state from the dream. How can you be certain that your whole life is not a dream? I think . Rules For The Direction Of The Mind.

I maintain also that substances, whether material or immaterial, cannot be conceived in their bare essence without any activity, activity being of the essence of substance in general. It follows that God is absolutely perfect, since perfection is nothing but magnitude of positive reality, in the strictest sense, setting aside the limits or bounds in things which are limited. Sufficient Reason For Contingent Truths.

Because we can never attain to the knowledge of God through any other thing, the nature of which is necessarily finite, even if it were far better known to us; for how is it possible that we should infer an infinite and limitless thing from a finite and limited thing? Who is to tell us? None are more taken in by flattery than the proud, who wish to be the first, but are not. Do not weep, do not wax indignant, understand.