The multitude always strains after rarities and exceptions, and thinks little of the gifts of nature; so that, when prophecy is talked… — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
A free man thinks of nothing less than of death; and his wisdom is a meditation not on death but on life. — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
everyone endeavors as much as possible to make others love what he loves, and to hate what he hates... This effort to… — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
The holy word of God is on everyone's lips...but...we see almost everyone presenting their own versions of God's word, with the sole… — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
Blessed are the weak who think that they are good because they have no claws. — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
The things which ... are esteemed as the greatest good of all ... can be reduced to these three headings, to wit… — 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
The terms good and bad indicate no positive quality in things regarded in themselves, but are merely modes of thinking or notions,… — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
If we conceive that anyone loves, desires, or hates anything which we ourselves love, desire, or hate, we shall thereupon regard the… — Baruch Spinoza Copy Share Image
Pride is pleasure arising from a man's thinking too highly of himself. — 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
