Quotes from Baruch Spinoza

What can be more calamitous than that men should be regarded as enemies and put to death, not for any crime or misdeed, but for being of independent mind?

Indeed, just as light makes manifest both itself and darkness, so truth is the standard both of itself and falsity.

that he that is strong hates no man, is angry with no man, envies no man, is indignant with no man, despises no man, and least of all things is proud.

Falsity consists in the privation of knowledge, which inadequate, fragmentary, or confused ideas involve.

The intellectual love of the mind towards God is that very love of God whereby God loves himself

He who, while unacquainted with these writings, nevertheless knows by the natural light that there is a God having the attributes we have recounted, and who also pursues a true way of life, is altogether blessed.

those who have more often regarded with admiration the stature of men will understand by the word 'man' an animal of upright stature, while those who are wont to regard a different aspect will form a different common image of man, such as that man is a laughing animal, a feather-less biped, or a rational animal.

in the case of the given numbers 1, 2, 3, everybody can see that the fourth proportional is 6, and all the more clearly because we infer in one single intuition the fourth number from the ratio we see the first number bears to the second.

That by the decrees and volitions, and consequently the providence of God, Scripture (as I will prove by Scriptural examples) means nothing but Nature's order following necessarily from her eternal laws.

Let satirists then laugh their fill at human affairs, let theologians rail, and let misanthropes praise to their utmost the life of untutored rusticity, let them heap contempt on men and praises on beasts; when all is said, they will find that men can provide for their wants much more easily by mutual help.

no one is bound to live as another pleases, but is the guardian of his own liberty.

Everyone is the defender of his own freedom.

He who exults in popular esteem has the daily burden of anxiously striving, acting and contriving to preserve his reputation. For the populace is fickle and inconstant, and unless a reputation is preserved it soon withers away.

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.

We there showed that the idea of body and body, that is, mind and body (II. xiii.), are one and the same individual conceived now under the attribute of thought, now under the attribute of extension; wherefore the idea of the mind and the mind itself are one and the same thing, which is conceived under one and the same attribute, namely, thought.

Desire is the actual essence of man, in so far as it is conceived, as determined to a particular activity by some given modification of itself.

that the foundation of all good and evil is love falling on a certain object. For whenever we do not love that object which alone is worthy of being loved, i.e. God, there follow necessarily from that hate and sadness.

El honor, en fin, constituye un gran impedimento porque para lograrlo es preciso vivir según la manera de ver de la gente, es decir, huir de lo que ella huye y buscar lo que ella busca.

The more you struggle to live, the less you live. Give up the notion that you must be sure of what you are doing. Instead, surrender to what is real within you, for that alone is sure….you are above everything distressing.

2. The essence of things are from all eternity, and unto all eternity shall remain immutable; The existence of God is essence; Therefore...

En la reminiscencia, en efecto, el alma tiene el pensamiento de esta sensación, pero no en la continuidad de su duración. Así, la idea de la sensación no es la duración misma de la sensación, es decir, ella no es propiamente su memoria. En cuanto a saber si las ideas mismas están sujetas a alguna corrupción, lo veremos en la Filosofía.

How would it be possible, if salvation were ready to our hand, and could without great labor be found, that it should be by almost all men neglected? But all things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.

seulement la foi vraie et la raison qui nous conduisent à la connaissance du bien et du mal.

Men are by nature are unequal and those who seek equality among unequal's seeks absurdity.