Men who are ruled by reason desire nothing for themselves which they would not wish for all mankind. — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
The safest way for a state is to lay down the rule that religion is comprised solely in the exercise of charity… — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
Nature offers nothing that can be called this man's rather than another's; but under nature everything belongs to all. — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
Men will find that they can ... avoid far more easily the perils which beset them on all sides by united action. — 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
A man is as much affected pleasurably or painfully by the image of a thing past or future as by the image… — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
Surely human affairs would be far happier if the power in men to be silent were the same as that to speak.… — 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
True piety for the universe but no time for religions made for man's convenience. — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
Fame has also this great drawback, that if we pursue it, we must direct our lives so as to please the fancy… — 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
The eternal wisdom of God ... has shown itself forth in all things, but chiefly in the mind of man, and most… — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
Many errors, of a truth, consist merely in the application of the wrong names of things. For if a man says that… — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
If slavery, barbarism and desolation are to be called peace, men can have no worse misfortune. — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
As though God had turned away from the wise, and written his decrees, not in the mind of man but in the… — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
The virtue of a free man appears equally great in refusing to face difficulties as in overcoming them. — 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… — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
Academies that are founded at public expense are instituted not so much to cultivate men's natural abilities as to restrain them. — 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
