Baruch Spinoza Quotes
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Surely human affairs would be far happier if the power in men to be silent were the same as that to speak.
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In practical life we are compelled to follow what is most probable ; in speculative thought we are compelled to follow truth.
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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.
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To comprehend an idea, a person must simultaneously accept it as true. Conscious analysis - which, depending on the idea, may occur almost immediately or with considerable effort - allows the mind to reject what it intially accepted as fact.
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Schisms do not originate in a love of truth, which is a source of courtesy and gentleness, but rather in an inordinate desire for supremacy.
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The safest way for a state is to lay down the rule that religion is comprised solely in the exercise of charity and justice, and that the rights of rulers in sacred, no less than in secular matters, should merely have to do with actions, but that every man should think what he likes and say what he thinks.
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Reality and perfection are synonymous.
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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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Indulge yourself in pleasures only in so far as they are necessary for the preservation of health.
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No matter how thin you slice it, there will always be two sides.
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Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it.
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The more intelligible a thing is, the more easily it is retained in the memory, and counterwise, the less intelligible it is, the more easily we forget it.
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In regard to intellect and true virtue, every nation is on a par with the rest, and God has not in these respects chosen one people rather than another.
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A miracle signifies nothing more than an event... the cause of which cannot be explained by another familiar instance, or.... which the narrator is unable to explain.
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The more we understand individual things, the more we understand God.
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Men will find that they can ... avoid far more easily the perils which beset them on all sides by united action.
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According as each has been educated, so he repents of or glories in his actions.
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I should attempt to treat human vice and folly geometrically... the passions of hatred, anger, envy, and so on, considered in themselves, follow from the necessity and efficacy of nature... I shall, therefore, treat the nature and strength of the emotion in exactly the same manner, as though I were concerned with lines, planes, and solids.
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I can control my passions and emotions if I can understand their nature.
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The proper study of a wise man is not how to die but how to live.
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Statesman are suspected of plotting against mankind, rather than consulting their interests, and are esteemed more crafty than learned.
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As men's habits of mind differ, so that some more readily embrace one form of faith, some another, for what moves one to pray may move another to scoff, I conclude ... that everyone should be free to choose for himself the foundations of his creed, and that faith should be judged only by its fruits.
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The mind can only imagine anything, or remember what is past, while the body endures.