Baruch Spinoza — "The more a thing has perfection, the more it acts, and the less it suffers."

"I call a thing free which exists and acts by the sole necessity of its own nature; and I call that compelled which is determined by something else to exist and act in a fixed and determinate manner."

"Whatsoever is, is in God, and without God nothing can be or be conceived."

"He who is led by fear and does good to avoid evil, is not guided by reason."

"Every man exists by the highest right of nature, and consequently, by the highest natural right, he does whatever follows from the necessity of his own nature."

"The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free."