A man should always have these two rules in readiness; the one to do only whatever the reason of the ruling and legislating faculty may suggest for the use of men; the other, to change thy opinion, if there is any one at hand who sets thee right and moves thee from any opinion.
In his personal notes, this passage outlines two fundamental rules for rational action and intellectual openness.
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But it is inconsistent with honoring reason and God to be troubled because by death a man will be deprived of the other things.
And how small a part of the whole substance; and how small a part of the universal soul; and on what a small clod of the whole earth thou creepest!
The safety of life is this, to examine everything all through, what it is itself, that is its material, what the formal part; with all thy soul to do justice and to say the truth.
There is one light of the sun, though it is interrupted by walls, mountains, and other things infinite.
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