Baruch Spinoza

Find the best quotes, maxims and aphorisms of Baruch Spinoza

Biography : Dutch philosopher.
Born: 1632 - Died: 1677
Period:
17th century
Place of birth: Netherlands

Netherlands

Baruch Spinoza - Quotes

I have laboured carefully, not to mock, lament, or execrate, but to understand human actions.
Baruch Spinoza - Tractatus politicus /

I have laboured carefully, not to mock, lament, or execrate, but to understand human actions.

All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.
Baruch Spinoza - Ethics /

All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.

Happiness is a virtue, not its reward.
Baruch Spinoza /

Fear cannot be without hope nor hope without fear.
Baruch Spinoza - Ethics /

Joy is the transition of man from a less to a greater perfection.
Baruch Spinoza - Ethics /

Humility is not a virtue; that is, it does not arise from reason.
Baruch Spinoza - Ethics /

A free man thinks of nothing less than of death, and his wisdom is a meditation, not on death, but on life.
Baruch Spinoza - Ethics /

Desire is the essence of a man.
Baruch Spinoza - Ethics /

Doubt always arises from the fact that things are investigated without order.
Baruch Spinoza /

There is something real in ideas, through which the true are distinguished from the false.
Baruch Spinoza - Tractatus de intellectus emendatione /

idea

Whatsoever is contrary to nature is contrary to reason, and whatsoever is contrary to reason is absurd.
Baruch Spinoza /

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.
Baruch Spinoza /

The order and connection of the thought is identical to with the order and connection of the things.
Baruch Spinoza - Ethics /

We feel and experience ourselves to be eternal.
Baruch Spinoza - Ethics

He who seeks equality between unequals seeks an absurdity.
Baruch Spinoza /

absurd

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

truth

One truth cannot conflict with another.
Baruch Spinoza

truth

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.
Baruch Spinoza

truth

He who repents is twice unhappy or twice impotent.
Baruch Spinoza - Ethics /

He alone is free who lives with free consent under the entire guidance of reason.
Baruch Spinoza

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.
Baruch Spinoza

beauty

The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free.
Baruch Spinoza

Nothing exists from whose nature some effect does not follow.
Baruch Spinoza

Nothing in the universe is contingent, but all things are conditioned to exist and operate in a particular manner by the necessity of the divine nature.
Baruch Spinoza

universe

I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of established religion.
Baruch Spinoza

philosophy

For peace is not mere absence of war, but is a virtue that springs from, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.
Baruch Spinoza

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

To give aid to every poor man is far beyond the reach and power of every man. Care of the poor is incumbent on society as a whole.
Baruch Spinoza

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

Do not weep do not wax indignant. Understand.
Baruch Spinoza