“liberty, to define it, is nothing other than the absence of impediments to motion”

The condition of man . . . is a condition of war of everyone against everyone.

As a draft-animal is yoked in a wagon, even so the spirit is yoked in this body.

Fear of things invisible is the natural seed of that which every one in himself calleth religion.

Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues.

Power simply is no more, but the excess of the power of one above that of another.

For it can never be that war shall preserve life, and peace destroy it.

A great leap in the dark.

For such is the nature of man, that howsoever they may acknowledge many others to be more witty, or more eloquent, or more learned; Yet they will hardly believe there be many so wise as themselves.

For to accuse requires less eloquence, such is man’s nature, than to excuse; and condemnation, than absolution, more resembles justice.

Philosophy excludes the doctrine of angels, and all such things as are thought to be neither bodies nor properties of bodies.

Covenants, without the sword, are but words and of no strength to secure a man at all.

It is not wisdom but authority that makes a Law.

Hell is truth seen too late.

All acquired power consists in command over some of the powers of other man.

I put for a general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of power, that ceases only in death.

The first and fundamental law of Nature, which is, to seek peace and follow it.

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.

When we experience the power of the Self, there is an absence of fear, there is no compulsion to control, and no struggle for approval or external power.

Darkness is merely the absence of light, and fear is merely the absence of love. If we want to be rid of fear, we cannot fight it but must replace it with love.

The purity of man is the absence of something, the purity of Jesus is the presence of something.

Patience is power. Patience is not an absence of action; rather it is “timing” it waits on the right time to act, for the right principles and in the right way.

What we call evil is the absence of Light, of love, in all cases.

I am not absentminded. It is the presence of mind that makes me unaware of everything else.

Total absence of humor makes life a total drudgery.