Quotes from Baruch Spinoza

Si existiese un dios o algún ser omnisciente, este ser no podría forjar absolutamente ficción alguna

Most of those who have written about the Affects, and men's way of living, seem to treat, not of natural things, which follow the common laws of nature, but of things that are outside nature. Indeed they seem to conceive man in nature as a dominion within a dominion. For they believe that man disturbs, rather than follows, the order of nature, that he has absolute power over his actions, and that he is determined only by himself.

I shall treat the nature and power of the Affects, and the power of the Mind over them, by the same Method by which, in the preceding parts, I treated God and the Mind, and I shall consider human actions and appetites just as if it were a Question of lines, planes, and bodies.

No burlarse, no lamentarse, no detestar, sino comprender

He who loves God cannot endeavor that God should love him in return.

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.

Love is pleasure accompanied by the idea of an external cause, and hatred pain accompanied by the idea of an external cause.

Minds are not conquered by force, but by love and high-mindedness.

If anyone conceives that he is loved by another, and believes that he has given no cause for such love, he will love that other in return.

Love or hatred towards a thing, which we conceive to be free, must, other things being similar, be greater than if it were felt towards a thing acting by necessity.

Hatred which is completely vanquished by love passes into love: and love is thereupon greater than if hatred had not preceded it.

Simply from the fact that we have regarded a thing with the emotion of pleasure or pain, though that thing be not the efficient cause of the emotion, we can either love or hate it.

I would warn you that I do not attribute to nature either beauty or deformity, order or confusion. Only in relation to our imagination can things be called beautiful or ugly, well-ordered or confused.

The world would be happier if men had the same capacity to be silent that they have to speak.

The most tyrannical of governments are those which make crimes of opinions, for everyone has an inalienable right to his thoughts.

Philosophy has no end in view save truth; faith looks for nothing but obedience and piety.

Be not astonished at new ideas; for it is well known to you that a thing does not therefore cease to be true because it is not accepted by many.

If we love something similar to ourselves, we endeavor, as far as we can, to bring it about that it should love us in return.

Love is nothing but joy accompanied with the idea of an eternal cause.

God is the indwelling and not the transient cause of all things.

We can always get along better by reason and love of truth than by worry of conscience and remorse...we should strive to keep worry from our life.

Many errors, of a truth, consist merely in the application of the wrong names of things.

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.

Those who are believed to be most abject and humble are usually most ambitious and envious.