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
Baruch Spinoza quotes about
philosophical passion emotion
I can control my passions and emotions if I can understand their nature
blessed thinking weak
Blessed are the weak who think that they are good because they have no claws.
doe impossible states
In the state of nature, wrong-doing is impossible ; or, if anyone does wrong, it is to himself, not to another.
ignorance pride self
The greatest pride, or the greatest despondency, is the greatest ignorance of one's self.
men made convenience
True piety for the universe but no time for religions made for man's convenience.
men long impossible
So long as a man imagines that he cannot do this or that, so long as he is determined not to do it; and consequently so long as it is impossible to him that he should do it.
communication law evil
In the state of nature, wrong-doing is impossible; or, if anyone does wrong, it is to himself, not to another. For no one by the law of nature is bound to please another, unless he chooses, nor to hold anything to be good or evil, but what he himself, according to his own temperament, pronounces to be so; and, to speak generally, nothing is forbidden by the law of nature, except what is beyond everyone's power.
mind eternity aspect
In so far as the mind sees things in their eternal aspect, it participates in eternity.
intellect
Will and intellect are one and the same thing.
excellent difficult
Everything excellent is as difficult as it is rare.
happiness happy philosophical
All happiness or unhappiness solely depends upon the quality of the object to which we are attached by love.
rewards virtue blessedness
Blessedness is not the reward of virtue but virtue itself.
laughing detest lament
No to laugh, not to lament, not to detest, but to understand.
hope fear cancer
There is no hope unmingled with fear, and no fear unmingled with hope.