Baruch Spinoza Quotes
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The idea, which constitutes the actual being of the human mind, is not simple, but compounded of a great number of ideas.
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The things which ... are esteemed as the greatest good of all ... can be reduced to these three headings, to wit : Riches, Fame, and Pleasure. With these three the mind is so engrossed that it cannot scarcely think of any other good.
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To understand something is to be delivered of it.
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He who lives according to the guidance of reason strives as much as possible to repay the hatred, anger, or contempt of others towards himself with love or generosity. ...hatred is increased by reciprocal hatred, and, on the other hand, can be extinguished by love, so that hatred passes into love.
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Faith is nothing but obedience and piety.
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Minds are not conquered by force, but by love and high-mindedness.
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Hatred which is completely vanquished by love passes into love: and love is thereupon greater than if hatred had not preceded it.
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I can control my passions and emotions if I can understand their nature.
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Men are especially intolerant of serving and being ruled by, their equals.
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This endeavour to do a thing or leave it undone, solely in order to please men, we call ambition, especially when we so eagerly endeavour to please the vulgar, that we do or omit certain things to our own or another's hurt : in other cases it is generally called kindliness.
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All laws which can be broken without any injury to another, are counted but a laughing-stock, and are so far from bridling the desires and lusts of men, that on the contrary they stimulate them.
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The more a government strives to curtail freedom of speech, the more obstinately is it resisted; not indeed by the avaricious, ... but by those whom good education, sound morality, and virtue have rendered more free.
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It is not possible that we should remember that we existed before our body, for our can bear no trace of such existence, neither can eternity be defined in terms of time or have any relation to time. But notwithstanding, we feel and know that we are eternal.
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God and all attributes of God are eternal.
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He that can carp in the most eloquent or acute manner at the weakness of the human mind is held by his fellows as almost divine.
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What everyone wants from life is continuous and genuine happiness.
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Everything in nature is a cause from which there flows some effect.
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No matter how thin you slice it, there will always be two sides.
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Let unswerving integrity be your watchword.
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He, who knows how to distinguish between true and false, must have an adequate idea of true and false.
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Human infirmity in moderating and checking the emotions I name bondage : for, when a man is a prey to his emotions, he is not his own master, but lies at the mercy of fortune : so much so, that he is often compelled, while seeing that which is better for him, to follow that which is worse.
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Measure, time and number are nothing but modes of thought or rather of imagination.
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The greater emotion with which we conceive a loved object to be affected toward us, the greater will be our complacency.
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He who has a true idea, knows at that same time that he has a true idea, nor can he doubt concerning the truth of the thing.