Men Quotes by Baruch Spinoza

Sadness diminishes a man's powers

— Baruch Spinoza

The proper study of a wise man is not how to die but how to live.

— Baruch Spinoza

Only free men are thoroughly grateful one to another.

— Baruch Spinoza

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

— Baruch Spinoza

Fame has also this great drawback, that if we pursue it, we must direct our lives so as to please the fancy…

— Baruch Spinoza

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

— Baruch Spinoza

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

— Baruch Spinoza

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

— Baruch Spinoza

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

— Baruch Spinoza

If slavery, barbarism and desolation are to be called peace, men can have no worse misfortune.

— Baruch Spinoza

The world would be happier if men had the same capacity to be silent that they have to speak.

— Baruch Spinoza

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

— Baruch Spinoza

It is usually the case with most men that their nature is so constituted that they pity those who fare badly and…

— Baruch Spinoza

Philosophers conceive of the passions which harass us as vices into which men fall by their own fault, and, therefore, generally deride,…

— Baruch Spinoza

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

— Baruch Spinoza

Laws which prescribe what everyone must believe, and forbid men to say or write anything against this or that opinion, are often…

— Baruch Spinoza

How would it be possible if salvation were ready to our hand, and could without great labor be found, that it should…

— Baruch Spinoza

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

— Baruch Spinoza

the ultimate aim of government is not to rule, or restrain by fear, nor to exact obedience, but to free every man…

— Baruch Spinoza

Of all the things that are beyond my power, I value nothing more highly than to be allowed the honor of entering…

— Baruch Spinoza

The safest way for a state is to lay down the rule that religion is comprised solely in the exercise of charity…

— Baruch Spinoza

Men would never be superstitious, if they could govern all their circumstances by set rules, or if they were always favoured by…

— Baruch Spinoza

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

— Baruch Spinoza

The greatest secret of monarchic rule...is to keep men deceived and to cloak in the specious name of religion the fear by…

— Baruch Spinoza

If the way which I have pointed out as leading to this result (i.e., power over the emotions by which the wise…

— Baruch Spinoza

Those who wish to seek out the cause of miracles and to understand the things of nature as philosophers, and not to…

— Baruch Spinoza

But if men would give heed to the nature of substance they would doubt less concerning the Proposition that Existence appertains to…

— Baruch Spinoza

All laws which can be violated without doing any one any injury are laughed at. Nay, so far are they from doing…

— Baruch Spinoza

A man is as much affected pleasurably or painfully by the image of a thing past or future as by the image…

— Baruch Spinoza

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

— Baruch Spinoza

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

— Baruch Spinoza

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

— Baruch Spinoza

Men will find that they can ... avoid far more easily the perils which beset them on all sides by united action.

— Baruch Spinoza

Nature offers nothing that can be called this man's rather than another's; but under nature everything belongs to all.

— Baruch Spinoza

Men are especially intolerant of serving and being ruled by, their equals.

— Baruch Spinoza

I have tried sedulously not to laugh at the acts of man, nor to lament them, nor to detest them, but to…

— Baruch Spinoza

All laws which can be broken without any injury to another, are counted but a laughing-stock, and are so far from bridling…

— Baruch Spinoza

If a man had begun to hate an object of his love, so that love is thoroughly destroyed, he will, causes being…

— Baruch Spinoza

A free man, who lives among ignorant people, tries as much as he can to refuse their benefits. .. He who lives…

— Baruch Spinoza

As though God had turned away from the wise, and written his decrees, not in the mind of man but in the…

— Baruch Spinoza