Baruch Spinoza Quotes
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In the state of nature, wrong-doing is impossible; or, if anyone does wrong, it is to himself, not to another. For no one by the law of nature is bound to please another, unless he chooses, nor to hold anything to be good or evil, but what he himself, according to his own temperament, pronounces to be so; and, to speak generally, nothing is forbidden by the law of nature, except what is beyond everyone's power.
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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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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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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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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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Men are especially intolerant of serving and being ruled by, their equals.
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I can control my passions and emotions if I can understand their nature.
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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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Everything in nature is a cause from which there flows some effect.
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What everyone wants from life is continuous and genuine happiness.
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Let unswerving integrity be your watchword.
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No matter how thin you slice it, there will always be two sides.
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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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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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Measure, time and number are nothing but modes of thought or rather of imagination.
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If slavery, barbarism and desolation are to be called peace, men can have no worse misfortune.