Baruch Spinoza
Baruch Spinoza
Baruch Spinozawas a Dutch philosopher of Sephardi/Portuguese origin. By laying the groundwork for the 18th-century Enlightenment and modern biblical criticism, including modern conceptions of the self and the universe, he came to be considered one of the great rationalists of 17th-century philosophy...
NationalityDutch
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth24 November 1632
philosophical self ideas
Self-complacency is pleasure accompanied by the idea of oneself as cause.
beauty beautiful nature
I would warn you that I do not attribute to nature either beauty or deformity, order or confusion. Only in relation to our imagination can things be called beautiful or ugly, well-ordered or confused.
life hands hatred
Hatred is increased by being reciprocated, and can on the other hand be destroyed by love.
pride self reason
Pride is over-estimation of oneself by reason of self-love.
way body anticipation
...The body is affected by the image of the thing, in the same way as if the thing were actually present.
soul mind body
The human mind cannot be absolutely destroyed along with the body, but something of it remains, which is eternal.
vanity abuse honor
It is sure that those are most desirous of honour or glory who cry out loudest of its abuse and the vanity of the world.
men envy human-nature
It is usually the case with most men that their nature is so constituted that they pity those who fare badly and envy those who fare well.
evil good-things enjoy
A good thing which prevents us from enjoying a greater good is in truth an evil.
body bears remember
It is not possible that we should remember that we existed before our body, for our can bear no trace of such existence, neither can eternity be defined in terms of time or have any relation to time. But notwithstanding, we feel and know that we are eternal.
science numbers imagination
Measure, time and number are nothing but modes of thought or rather of imagination.
realizing difficult
Everything great is just as difficult to realize as it is rare to find.
hope believe men
We are so constituted by Nature that we easily believe the things we hope for, but believe only with difficulty those we fear, and that we regard such things more or less highly than is just. This is the source of the superstitions by which men everywhere are troubled. For the rest, I don
doubt body duration
No one doubts but that we imagine time from the very fact that we imagine other bodies to be moved slower or faster or equally fast. We are accustomed to determine duration by the aid of some measure of motion.