To comprehend an idea, a person must simultaneously accept it as true. Conscious analysis - which, depending on the idea, may occur almost immediately or with considerable effort - allows the mind to reject what it intially accepted as fact. — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
Men believe themselves to be free, simply because they are conscious of their actions, and unconscious of the causes whereby those actions are determined. — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
It is sure that those are most desirous of honour or glory who cry out loudest of its abuse and the vanity of the… — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
. . . to know the order of nature, and regard the universe as orderly is the highest function of the mind. — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
If anyone conceives that he is loved by another, and believes that he has given no cause for such love, he will love that… — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
The world would be happier if men had the same capacity to be silent that they have to speak. — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
“So they will pursue their questions from cause to cause, till at last you take refuge in the will of God—in other words, the… — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
As men's habits of mind differ, so that some more readily embrace one form of faith, some another, for what moves one to pray… — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
If a man had begun to hate an object of his love, so that love is thoroughly destroyed, he will, causes being equal, regard… — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
I make this chief distinction between religion and superstition, that the latter is founded on ignorance, the former on knowledge. — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
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… — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
A good thing which prevents us from enjoying a greater good is in truth an evil. — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
But if men would give heed to the nature of substance they would doubt less concerning the Proposition that Existence appertains to the nature… — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
The more intelligible a thing is, the more easily it is retained in the memory, and counterwise, the less intelligible it is, the more… — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
