All the objects pursued by the multitude not only bring no remedy that tends to preserve our being, but even act as hinderances, causing the death not seldom of those who possess them, and always of those who are possessed by them.
Baruch SpinozaHe that can carp in the most eloquent or acute manner at the weakness of the human mind is held by his fellows as almost divine.
Baruch SpinozaAll laws which can be violated without doing any one any injury are laughed at. Nay, so far are they from doing anything to control the desires and passions of menะฑ that, on the contrary, they direct and incite men's thoughts the more toward those very objects, for we always strive toward what is forbidden and desire the things we are not allowed to have. And men of leisure are never deficient in the ingenuity needed to enable them to outwit laws framed to regulate things which cannot be entirely forbidden... He who tries to determine everything by law will foment crime rather than lessen it.
Baruch SpinozaWhatever increases, decreases, limits or extends the body's power of action, increases decreases, limits, or extends the mind's power of action. And whatever increases, decreases, limits, or extends the mind's power of action, also increases, decreases, limits, or extends the body's power of action.
Baruch Spinoza