Baruch Spinoza
10 quotes
“The ordinary surroundings of life which are esteemed by men (as their actions testify) to be the highest good, may be classed under the three heads”
“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. I, 1”
“All the better; they do not force me to do anything that I would not have done of my own accord if I did not dread scandal. But since they want it that way, I enter gladly on the path that is opened to me, with the consolation that my departure will be more innocent than was the exodus of the early Hebrews from Egypt. Statement after his excommunication from Jewish society, attributed by Lucas, in The Oldest Biography of Spinoza (1970) by A. Wolf; also in Spinoza: A Life (1999) by Steven Nadler”
“Of all the things that are beyond my power, I value nothing more highly than to be allowed the honor of entering into bonds of friendship with people who sincerely love truth . For, of things beyond our power, I believe there is nothing in the world which we can love with tranquility except such men. Spinoza, Correspondence, 146, Letter xix”
“Nature is satisfied with little; and if she is, I am also. As quoted in The Story of Philosophy (1933) by Will Durant , p. 176”
“How I know that my philosophy is the best among all that have ever been taught in the world, or are being taught, or ever will be taught?”
“I make this chief distinction between religion and superstition , that the latter is founded on ignorance, the former on knowledge ; this, I take it, is the reason why Christians are distinguished from the rest of the world, not by faith , nor by charity , nor by the other fruits of the Holy Spirit, but solely by their opinions, inasmuch as they defend their cause, like everyone else, by miracles, that is by ignorance , which is the source of all malice; thus they turn a faith, which may be true, into superstition. Letter 21 (73) to Henry Oldenburg , November”
“If I had as clear an idea of ghosts, as I have of a triangle or a circle, I should not in the least hesitate to affirm that they had been created by God; but as the idea I possess of them is just like the ideas, which my imagination forms of harpies, gryphons, hydras, &c., I cannot consider them as anything but dreams, which differ from God as totally as that which is not differs from that which is. Letter to Hugo Boxel (October 1674) The Chief Works of Benedict de Spinoza (1891) Tr. R. H. M. Elwes, Vol. 2, Letter 58 (54).”
“This I know, that between finite and infinite there is no comparison; so that the difference between God and the greatest and most excellent created thing is no less than the difference between God and the least created thing. Letter to Hugo Boxel (October 1674) The Chief Works of Benedict de Spinoza (1891) Tr. R. H. M. Elwes, Vol. 2, Letter 58 (54).”
“Principles of Descartes”