In the state of nature, wrong-doing is impossible; or, if anyone does wrong, it is to himself, not to another. For no… — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
Laws which prescribe what everyone must believe, and forbid men to say or write anything against this or that opinion, are often… — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
Since love of God is the highest felicity and happiness of man, his final end and the aim of all his actions,… — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
He who seeks to regulate everything by law is more likely to arouse vices than to reform them. It is best to… — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
Laws which can be broken without any wrong to one's neighbor are a laughing-stock; and such laws, instead of restraining the appetites… — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
He who regulates everything by laws, is more likely to arouse vices than reform them. — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
Nothing comes to pass in nature, which can be set down to a flaw therein; for nature is always the same, and… — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
Laws directed against opinions affect the generous-minded rather than the wicked, and are adapted less for coercing criminals than for irritating the… — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
Man can, indeed, act contrarily to the decrees of God, as far as they have been written like laws in the minds… — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
He who hates anyone will endeavor to do him an injury, unless he fears that a greater injury will thereby accrue to… — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
All laws which can be violated without doing any one any injury are laughed at. Nay, so far are they from doing… — 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
