Prayer that runs its course till the last day of life needs a strong and tranquil soul.

It is absolutely impossible at the same time to be a man of understanding and not to be ashamed to gratify the body.

Now the images and temples constructed by mechanics are made of inert matter, so that they too are inert, material, and profane. Even if you perfect the art, it partakes of mechanical coarseness. Works of art cannot then be sacred and divine.

The purified righteous man has become a coin of the Lord, and has the impress of his King stamped upon him.

He alone can remit sins who is appointed our Master by the Father of all; He only is able to discern obedience from disobedience.

When the two shall be one, the outside as the inside, and the male and the female neither male nor female.

The law itself exhibits justice and teaches wisdom by abstinence from sensible images and by calling out to the Maker and Father of the universe.

But true philosophic demonstration will contribute to the profit not of the listeners’ tongues, but of their minds. And, in my opinion, he who is solicitous about truth ought not to frame his language with artfulness and care, but only to try to express his meaning as he best can.

For why should not the wine of their own country satisfy men’s desires, unless they were to import water also, like the foolish Persian kings?

What does God think of spurious beauty, rejecting utterly as He does all falsehood?