“It is necessary to believe that the mixture of evil has produced the greatest possible good: otherwise the evil would not have been permitted.”

Now this connection or adaption of all created things with each, and of each with all the rest, means that each simple substance has relations which express all the others, and that consequently it is a perpetual living mirror of the universe.

One cannot explain words without making incursions into the sciences themselves, as is evident from dictionaries; and, conversely, one cannot present a science without at the same time defining its terms.

There is nothing waste, nothing sterile, nothing dead in the universe; no chaos, no confusions, save in appearance.

The greatness of a life can only be estimated by the multitude of its actions. We should not count the years, it is our actions which constitute our life.

Our reasonings are grounded upon two great principles, that of contradiction, in virtue of which we judge false that which involves a contradiction, and true that which is opposed or contradictory to the false.

Music is a secret and unconscious mathematical problem of the soul.

Every mind has a horizon in respect to its present intellectual capacity but not in respect to its future intellectual capacity.

He who understands Archimedes and Apollonius will admire less the achievements of the foremost men of later times.

There is nothing without a reason.

Thus God alone is the primary Unity, or original simple substance, from which all monads, created and derived, are produced.

God’s relation to spirits is not like that of a craftsman to his work, but also like that of a prince to his subjects.

Virtue is the habit of acting according to wisdom.

There is a certain destiny of everything, regulated by the foreknowledge and providence of God in His works.

The pleasure we obtain from music comes from counting, but counting unconsciously. Music is nothing but unconscious arithmetic.

We may say, that not only the soul (the mirror of an indestructible universe) is indestructible, but also the animal itself is, although its mechanism is frequently destroyed in parts.

Music is nothing but unconscious arithmetic.

I don’t believe in elitism. I don’t think the audience is this dumb person lower than me. I am the audience.

Of course I believe in marriage. Commitment to one other person in life is glorious.

I believe if God doesn’t give you a miracle, you are a miracle of God for somebody else’s salvation.

Never let any mistake cause you to stop believing in yourself. Learn from it and go on.

When scientifically investigating the natural world, the only thing worse than a blind believer is a seeing denier.

I did not believe political directives could be successfully applied to creative writing . . . not to poetry or fiction, which to be valid had to express as truthfully as possible the individual emotions and reactions of the writer.

I feel very strongly that curves are natural, womanly and real. I shall continue to hope that women are able to believe in themselves for who they are inside, and not feel under such incredible pressure to be unnaturally thin.

One lady told me that before she saw ‘Sounder’ she didn’t believe black people could love each other, have deep relationships in the same way as white people.