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
aids ceremony blessedness
Ceremonies are no aid to blessedness.
men religion useless
Men would never be superstitious, if they could govern all their circumstances by set rules, or if they were always favoured by fortune: but being frequently driven into straits where rules are useless, and being often kept fluctuating pitiably between hope and fear by the uncertainty of fortune's greedily coveted favours, they are consequently for the most part, very prone to credulity.
absurdity
He who seeks equality between unequals seeks an absurdity.
hope fear cancer
There is no hope unmingled with fear, and no fear unmingled with hope.
popular religion respect
Popular religion may be summed up as a respect for Ecclesiastes
bad deaf good music neither nor
Music is good to the melancholy, bad to those who mourn, and neither good nor bad to the deaf
bad good music neither nor time
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 those who mourn, and neither good nor bad to the deaf.
stronger overcoming emotion
Reason connot defeat emotion, an emotion can only be displaced or overcome by a stronger emotion.
life believe return
If anyone conceives that he is loved by another, and believes that he has given no cause for such love, he will love that other in return.
believe circles triangles
I believe that a triangle, if it could speak, would say that God is eminently triangular, and a circle that the divine nature is eminently circular; and thus would every one ascribe his own attributes to God.
passion men law
All laws which can be violated without doing any one any injury are laughed at. Nay, so far are they from doing anything to control the desires and passions of men that, on the contrary, they direct and incite men's thoughts the more toward those very objects, for we always strive toward what is forbidden and desire the things we are not allowed to have. And men of leisure are never deficient in the ingenuity needed to enable them to outwit laws framed to regulate things which cannot be entirely forbidden... He who tries to determine everything by law will foment crime rather than lessen it.
life love-is hatred
Hatred which is completely vanquished by love passes into love: and love is thereupon greater than if hatred had not preceded it...
desire
Desire nothing for yourself, which you do not desire for others.
nature philosophical environment
Whatsoever is contrary to nature is contrary to reason, and whatsoever is contrary to reason is absurd.