Quotes from Baruch Spinoza

Men govern nothing with more difficulty than their tongues, and can moderate their desires more than their words.

Men will find that they can ... avoid far more easily the perils which beset them on all sides by united action.

Sin cannot be conceived in a natural state, but only in a civil state, where it is decreed by common consent what is good or bad.

There is no fear without some hope, and no hope without some fear.

Only that thing is free which exists by the necessities of its own nature, and is determined in its actions by itself alone.

It may easily come to pass that a vain man may become proud and imagine himself pleasing to all when he is in reality a universal nuisance.

When a man is prey to his emotions, he is not his own master.

He alone is free who lives with free consent under the entire guidance of reason.

We strive to further the occurrence of whatever we imagine will lead to Joy, and to avert or destroy what we imagine is contrary to it, or will lead to Sadness.

Happiness is a virtue, not its reward.

The endeavor to understand is the first and only basis of virtue.

Blessedness is not the reward of virtue but virtue itself.

Ambition is the immoderate desire for honor.

Ambition is the immoderate desire for power.

He who seeks equality between unequals seeks an absurdity.

Faith is nothing but obedience and piety.

Superstition, then, is engendered, preserved, and fostered by fear.

There is no hope unmingled with fear, and no fear unmingled with hope.

Freedom is self-determination.

I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of established religion

Freedom is absolutely necessary for the progress in science and the liberal arts

The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free

All happiness or unhappiness solely depends upon the quality of the object to which we are attached by love

Hatred is increased by being reciprocated, and can on the other hand be destroyed by love. Hatred which is completely vanquished by love, passes into love; and love is thereupon greater, than if hatred had not preceded it.