Top 228 Quotes & Sayings by Baruch Spinoza - Page 2

Those who know the true use of money, and regulate the measure of wealth according to their needs, live contented with few things.

The supreme mystery of despotism, its prop and stay, is to keep men in a state of deception, and with the specious title of religion to cloak the fear by which they must be held in check, so that they will fight for their servitude as if for salvation.

What everyone wants from life is continuous and genuine happiness.

[Believers] are but triflers who, when they cannot explain a thing, run back to the will of God; this is, truly, a ridiculous way of expressing ignorance.

We must take care not to admit as true anything, which is only probable. For when one falsity has been let in, infinite others follow.

the ultimate aim of government is not to rule, or restrain by fear, nor to exact obedience, but to free every man from fear that he may live in all possible security... In fact the true aim of government is liberty.

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

Big fish eat small fish with as much right as they have power.

Only free men are thoroughly grateful one to another.

The terms good and bad indicate no positive quality in things regarded in themselves, but are merely modes of thinking or notions, which we form from the comparison of things one with another. Thus one and the same thing can be at the same time good, bad, and indifferent. For instance, music is good for him that is melancholy, bad for him that mourns; for him that is deaf; it is neither good nor bad.

Nature has no goal in view, and final causes are only human imaginings.

Sadness diminishes a man's powers

Men are mistaken in thinking themselves free; their opinion is made up of consciousness of their own actions, and ignorance of the causes by which they are determined.

Men who are ruled by reason desire nothing for themselves which they would not wish for all mankind.

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.

Laws which prescribe what everyone must believe, and forbid men to say or write anything against this or that opinion, are often passed to gratify, or rather to appease the anger of those who cannot abide independent minds.

Further conceive, I beg, that a stone, while continuing in motion, should be capable of thinking and knowing, that it is endeavoring, as far as it can, to continue to move. Such a stone, being conscious merely of its own endeavor and not at all indifferent, would believe itself to be completely free, and would think that it continued in motion solely because of its own wish. This is that human freedom, which all boast that they possess, and which consists solely in the fact, that men are conscious of their own desire, but are ignorant of the causes whereby that desire has been determined.

All is One (Nature, God)

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

God is not He who is, but That which is.

Indulge yourself in pleasures only in so far as they are necessary for the preservation of health.

Of all the things that are beyond my power, I value nothing more highly than to be allowed the honor of entering into bonds of friendship with people who sincerely love truth. For, of things beyond our power, I believe there is nothing in the world which we can love with tranquility except such men.

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

Freedom is self-determination.

If facts conflict with a theory, either the theory must be changed or the facts.

In the mind there is no absolute or free will; but the mind is determined to wish this or that by a cause, which has also been determined by another cause, and this last by another cause, and so on to infinity.

A good thing which prevents us from enjoying a greater good is in truth an evil.

The greatest secret of monarchic rule...is to keep men deceived and to cloak in the specious name of religion the fear by which they must be checked, so that they will fight for slavery as they would for salvation, and will think it not shameful, but a most honorable achievement, to give their life and blood that one man may have a ground for boasting.

He who regulates everything by laws, is more likely to arouse vices than reform them.

Everything excellent is as difficult as it is rare.

Laws which can be broken without any wrong to one's neighbor are a laughing-stock; and such laws, instead of restraining the appetites and lusts of mankind, serve rather to heighten them. Nitimur in vetitum semper, cupimusque negata [we always resist prohibitions, and yearn for what is denied us].

A free man thinks of nothing less than of death; and his wisdom is a meditation not on death but on life.

Speculation, like nature, abhors a vacuum.

For peace is not mere absence of war, but is a virtue that springs from force of character: for obedience is the constant will to execute what, by the general decree of the commonwealth, ought to be done.

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

Let unswerving integrity be your watchword.

To understand something is to be delivered of it.

I believe that a triangle, if it could speak, would say that God is eminently triangular, and a circle that the divine nature is eminently circular; and thus would every one ascribe his own attributes to God.

Academies that are founded at public expense are instituted not so much to cultivate men's natural abilities as to restrain them.

We are so constituted by Nature that we easily believe the things we hope for, but believe only with difficulty those we fear, and that we regard such things more or less highly than is just. This is the source of the superstitions by which men everywhere are troubled. For the rest, I don

Nature is satisfied with little; and if she is, I am also.

Hatred is increased by being reciprocated, and can on the other hand be destroyed by love.

He, who knows how to distinguish between true and false, must have an adequate idea of true and false.

No to laugh, not to lament, not to detest, but to understand.

In practical life we are compelled to follow what is most probable ; in speculative thought we are compelled to follow truth.

. . . to know the order of nature, and regard the universe as orderly is the highest function of the mind.

Blessed are the weak who think that they are good because they have no claws.

Whatsoever is, is in God.

Everyone endeavors as much as possible to make others love what he loves, and to hate what he hates... This effort to make everyone approve what we love or hate is in truth ambition, and so we see that each person by nature desires that other persons should live according to his way of thinking.

He who wishes to revenge injuries by reciprocal hatred will live in misery. But he who endeavors to drive away hatred by means of love, fights with pleasure and confidence; he resists equally one or many men, and scarcely needs at all the help of fortune. Those whom he conquers yield joyfully

Happiness is not the reward of virtue, but is virtue itself; nor do we delight in happiness because we restrain from our lusts; but on the contrary, because we delight in it, therefore we are able to restrain them.

Ceremonies are no aid to blessedness.

Care of the poor is incumbent on society as a whole.

True piety for the universe but no time for religions made for man's convenience.

Surely human affairs would be far happier if the power in men to be silent were the same as that to speak. But experience more than sufficiently teaches that men govern nothing with more difficulty than their tongues.

He whose honor depends on the opinion of the mob must day by day strive with the greatest anxiety, act and scheme in order to retain his reputation. For the mob is varied and inconsistent, and therefore if a reputation is not carefully preserved it dies quickly.

The eternal wisdom of God ... has shown itself forth in all things, but chiefly in the mind of man, and most of all in Jesus Christ.

Faith is nothing but obedience and piety.

I can control my passions and emotions if I can understand their nature

The mind has greater power over the emotions, and is less subject thereto, insofar as it understands all things to be necessary.