Baruch Spinoza Quotes

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

Things which are accidentally the causes either of hope or fear are called good or evil omens.

Surely human affairs would be far happier if the power in men to be silent were the same as that to speak.

The greatest pride, or the greatest despondency, is the greatest ignorance of one's self.

One and the same thing can at the same time be good, bad, and indifferent, e.g., music is good to the melancholy, bad to those who mourn, and neither good nor bad to the deaf.

In regard to intellect and true virtue, every nation is on a par with the rest, and God has not in these respects chosen one people rather than another.

Measure, time and number are nothing but modes of thought or rather of imagination.

I saw that all things I feared, and which feared me, had nothing good or bad in them save insofar as the mind was affected by them.

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

True knowledge of good and evil as we possess is merely abstract or general, and the judgment which we pass on the order of things and the connection of causes, with a view to determining what is good or bad for us in the present, is rather imaginary than real.

Men believe themselves to be free, simply because they are conscious of their actions, and unconscious of the causes whereby those actions are determined.

I do not believe anyone has reached such perfection, surpassing all others, except Christ, to whom God immediately revealed - without words or visions - the conditions which lead to salvation.

If the way which I have pointed out as leading to this result (i.e., power over the emotions by which the wise man surpasses the ignorant man) seems exceedingly hard, it may nevertheless be discovered. Needs must it be hard, since it is so seldom found. How would it be possible, if salvation were ready to our hand, and could without great labour be found, that it should be by almost all men neglected? But all things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.

According as each has been educated, so he repents of or glories in his actions.

It is sure that those are most desirous of honour or glory who cry out loudest of its abuse and the vanity of the world.

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.

All 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 menб 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.

I shall consider human actions and desires in exactly the same manner, as though I were concerned with lines, planes and solids.

If men were born free, they would, so long as they remained free, form no conception of good and evil.

The more intelligible a thing is, the more easily it is retained in the memory, and counterwise, the less intelligible it is, the more easily we forget it.

The greatest good is the knowledge of the union which the mind has with the whole nature.

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

Peace is not the absence of war, but a virtue based on strength of character.

The virtue of a free man appears equally great in refusing to face difficulties as in overcoming them.

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

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.

Whatsoever is, is in God, and without God nothing can be, or be conceived.

He who hates anyone will endeavor to do him an injury, unless he fears that a greater injury will thereby accrue to himself; on the other hand, he who loves anyone will, by the same law, seek to benefit him.

Ceremonies are no aid to blessedness.

From what has been said we can clearly understand the nature of Love and Hate. Love is nothing else but pleasure accompanied by the idea of an external cause: Hate is nothing else but pain accompanied by the idea of an external cause. We further see, that he who loves necessarily endeavors to have, and to keep present to him, the object of his love; while he who hates endeavors to remove and destroy the object of his hatred.

Nothing in nature is by chance... Something appears to be chance only because of our lack of knowledge.

Blessedness is not the reward of virtue but virtue itself.

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

I make this chief distinction between religion and superstition, that the latter is founded on ignorance, the former on knowledge.

Ambition is the immoderate desire for honor.

Better that right counsels be known to enemies than that the evil secrets of tyrants should be concealed from the citizens. They who can treat secretly of the affairs of a nation have it absolutely under their authority; and as they plot against the enemy in time of war, so do they against the citizens in time of peace.

Whatever 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.

The holy word of God is on everyone's lips...but...we see almost everyone presenting their own versions of God's word, with the sole purpose of using religion as a pretext for making others think as they do.

Reason connot defeat emotion, an emotion can only be displaced or overcome by a stronger emotion.

So long as a man imagines that he cannot do this or that, so long as he is determined not to do it; and consequently so long as it is impossible to him that he should do it.

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.

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.

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

The multitude always strains after rarities and exceptions, and thinks little of the gifts of nature; so that, when prophecy is talked of, ordinary knowledge is not supposed to be included. Nevertheless it has as much right as any other to be called Divine.

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.

The idea, which constitutes the actual being of the human mind, is not simple, but compounded of a great number of ideas.

Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it.

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.