Quote of Baruch Spinoza - I have laboured carefully, not to...

Biography - Baruch Spinoza:

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

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

Note

"I have laboured carefully, not to mock, lament, or execrate human actions, but to understand them; and, to this end, I have looked upon passions, such as love, hatred, anger, envy, ambition, pity, and the other perturbations of the mind, not in the light of vices of human nature, but as properties, just as pertinent to it, as are heat, cold, storm, thunder, and the like to the nature of the atmosphere, which phenomena, though inconvenient, are yet necessary, and have fixed causes, by means of which we endeavour to understand their nature, and the mind has just as much pleasure in viewing them aright, as in knowing such things as flatter the senses."

Other Version: "I have carefully endeavoured not to deride, or deplore or detest human actions, but to understand them;"

Quote source: Tractatus politicus

Internet Archive - Treatise on Politics by Benedictus de Spinoza (en)

Wikisource - Benedictus de Spinoza - Tractatus Politicus - CAPUT I. IV. (la)

Wikisource - Œuvres de Spinoza (fr)

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

Translation

(German, French, Latin)

Ich habe mich bemüht, die menschlichen Handlungen nicht zu belachen, nicht zu betrauern und nicht zu verabscheuen, sondern zu verstehen.

Baruch de Spinoza - Tractatus politicus

En ce qui concerne les actions humaines, je me suis soigneusement efforcé de ne pas railler, ne pas pleurer, ne pas même détester, mais de comprendre.

Baruch Spinoza - Traité politique

Sedulo curavi, humanas actiones non ridere, non lugere, neque detestari, sed intelligere.

Seneca - On Tranquility of the Mind

The contempt of our nature is an error of our reason.

Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues - Reflexions and Maxims

Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding.

Mahatma Gandhi

I am human, and I think that nothing of that which is human is alien to me.

Publius Terentius Afer - Heautontimoroumenos

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

Carl Gustav Jung - Memories, Dreams, Reflections

When someone opposes me, he arouses my attention, not my anger. I go to greet a man who contradicts me, who instructs me.

Michel de Montaigne - Essays

What is tolerance? It is the endowment of humanity. We are all steeped in weakness and error; let us forgive each other our stupidities, that is the first law of nature.

Voltaire - Philosophical Dictionary

Personally, I enjoy understanding people more than judging them.

Stefan Zweig - Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman

Perhaps men entertain as many truths as falsehoods; have as many good qualities as bad; feel as many pleasures as pains. But we like to malign human nature, in order to try to raise ourselves above the common level, and to acquire for ourselves the respect of which we strive to rob it. We are so presumptuous, that we imagine we can separate our own personal interests from those of humanity in general, and malign the human race without implicating ourselves. This absurd vanity has filled books of philosophy with diatribes against human nature. Man is in disgrace with all thinkers, who rival one another in accusing him of depravity. But perhaps he may be about to rise again and recover all his virtues; nothing is permanent, and philosophy, like clothes, music, architecture, &c, has its vogues.

Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues - Reflexions and Maxims

Be a philosopher; but, amidst all your philosophy, be still a man.

David Hume - An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

True artists scorn nothing: they are obliged to understand rather than to judge.

Albert Camus - Speech at the Nobel Banquet, December 10, 1957

Quotes for: to understand

The best means of learning to know oneself is seeking to understand others.

André Gide /

Painters understand nature and love her and teach us to see.

Vincent Willem van Gogh - Letters to Theo /

The highest forms of understanding we can achieve are laughter and human compassion.

Richard Phillips Feynman /

Joy in looking and comprehending is nature's most beautiful gift.

Albert Einstein /

It is perfectly true, as the philosophers say, that life must be understood backwards. But they forget the other proposition, that it must be lived forwards.

Soren Kierkegaard - Journals /

In youth we learn; in age we understand.

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach /

All to understand quotes...

Quotes about human nature:

Humanity takes itself too seriously. It is the world's original sin. If the caveman had known how to laugh, History would have been different.

Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray /

Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure.

Jeremy Bentham - Principles of Morals and Legislation /

Humankind has become so much one family that we cannot ensure our own prosperity except by ensuring that of everyone else. If you wish to be happy yourself, you must resign yourself to seeing others also happy.

Bertrand Russell /

Be humanity evermore our goal.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe /

Why should the law refuse its protection to any sensitive being? The time will come when humanity will extend its mantle over everything which breathes.

Jeremy Bentham - Principles of Penal Law /

The dignity of mankind is in your hands; protect it!
It sinks with you! With you it will ascend.

Friedrich Schiller - The Artists /

All about human nature...

Quotes about action:

One should be light like a bird, and not like a feather.

Paul Valéry - Tel quel /

action

Often he who omits an act does injustice, not only he who commits an act.

Marcus Aurelius - Meditations /

I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts.

John Locke - An Essay Concerning Human Understanding /

Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom.

Hannah Arendt /

Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought.

Henri Bergson /

Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law.

Immanuel Kant - Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals /

All about action...

Baruch Spinoza also said...

All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.

Baruch Spinoza - Ethics /

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 /

More quotes...

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Quote of Baruch Spinoza - I have laboured carefully, not to...

Biography - Baruch Spinoza:

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Translation

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Quotes for: to understand

Quotes about human nature:

Quotes about action:

Baruch Spinoza also said...

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