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
men serving
Men are especially intolerant of serving and being ruled by, their equals.
men sides action
Men will find that they can ... avoid far more easily the perils which beset them on all sides by united action.
life envy hatred
If anyone conceives, that an object of his love joins itself to another with closer bonds of friendship than he himself has attained to, he will be affected with hatred towards the loved object and with envy towards his rival.
grateful men free-man
Only free men are thoroughly grateful one to another.
gratitude real views
True knowledge of good and evil as we possess is merely abstract or general, and the judgment which we pass on the order of things and the connection of causes, with a view to determining what is good or bad for us in the present, is rather imaginary than real.
ideas effort mind
To comprehend an idea, a person must simultaneously accept it as true. Conscious analysis - which, depending on the idea, may occur almost immediately or with considerable effort - allows the mind to reject what it intially accepted as fact.
divine particular all-things
Nothing in the universe is contingent, but all things are conditioned to exist and operate in a particular manner by the necessity of the divine nature.
life complacency emotion
The greater emotion with which we conceive a loved object to be affected toward us, the greater will be our complacency.
gratitude attitude two-sides
Fear cannot be without hope nor hope without fear. [They are the two sides of a coin, so learning how to manage fear through learning, understanding, rationality, controlled imagination, preparation, mental focus (including distraction) and a gratitude attitude is very helpful.]
men careers giving
To give aid to every poor man is far beyond the reach and power of every man. Care of the poor is incumbent on society as a whole.
philosophical firsts virtue
The endeavor to understand is the first and only basis of virtue.
silence peter
What Paul says about Peter tells us more about Paul than about Peter.
sadness men diminish
Sadness diminishes a man's powers
intelligent miracle down-and
Anyone who seeks for the true causes of miracles, and strives to understand natural phenomena as an intelligent being, and not to gaze at them like a fool, is set down and denounced as an impious heretic.