Minds, however, are conquered not by arms, but by love and nobility.

The good which every man, who follows after virtue, desires for himself he will also desire for other men...

It will be said that, although God’s law is inscribed in our hearts, Scripture is nevertheless the Word of God, and it is no more permissible to say of Scripture that it is mutilated and contaminated than to say this of God’s Word. In reply, I have to say that such objectors are carrying their piety too far, and are turning religion into superstition; indeed, instead of God’s Word they are beginning to worship likenesses and images, that is, paper and ink.

Nothing forbids man to enjoy himself, save grim and gloomy superstition

Hatred is increased by being reciprocated, and can on the other hand be destroyed by love.

men, in so far as they live in obedience to reason necessarily do only such things as are necessarily good for human nature, and consequently for each individual man.

For though men be ignorant, yet they are men

Love is nothing but Joy with the accompanying idea of an external cause (Ethics, part III, proposition 13, scholium).

The superstitious know how to reproach people for their vices better than they know how to teach them virtues, and they strive, not to guide men by reason, but to restrain them by fear, so that they flee the evil rather than love virtues. Such people aim only to make others as wretched as they themselves are, so it is no wonder that they are generally burdensome and hateful to men.