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
god order facts
Things could not have been brought into being by God in any manner or in any order different from that which has in fact obtained.
god essence causes
God is the efficient cause not only of the existence of things, but also of their essence. Corr. Individual things are nothing but modifications of the attributes of God, or modes by which the attributes of God are expressed in a fixed and definite manner.
god attributes attributes-of-god
God and all attributes of God are eternal.
philosophical pantheism without-god
Whatsoever is, is in God, and without God nothing can be, or be conceived.
return god-love should
He who loves God cannot endeavor that God should love him in return.
god faith hope
I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of established religion.
real discovery mind
After experience had taught me that all the usual surroundings of social life are vain and futile; seeing that none of the objects of my fears contained in themselves anything either good or bad, except in so far as the mind is affected by them, I finally resolved to inquire whether there might be some real good having power to communicate itself, which would affect the mind singly, to the exclusion of all else: whether, in fact, there might be anything of which the discovery and attainment would enable me to enjoy continuous, supreme, and unending happiness.
reality men giving
But if men would give heed to the nature of substance they would doubt less concerning the Proposition that Existence appertains to the nature of substance: rather they would reckon it an axiom above all others, and hold it among common opinions. For then by substance they would understand that which is in itself, and through itself is conceived, or rather that whose knowledge does not depend on the knowledge of any other thing.
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
pride self reason
Pride is over-estimation of oneself by reason of self-love.
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.
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.