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Baruch Spinoza

Baruch Spinoza Quotes

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“Further conceive, I beg, that a stone, while continuing in motion, should be capable of thinking and knowing, that it is endeavoring, as far as it can, to continue to move. Such a stone, being conscious merely of its own endeavor and not at all indifferent, would believe itself to be completely free, and would think that it continued in motion solely because of its own wish. This is that human freedom, which all boast that they possess, and which consists solely in the fact, that men are conscious of their own desire, but are ignorant of the causes whereby that desire has been determined.”

ThinkingMenShouldBelieveHumansHas BeensFactsMovingDesireWishCausesKnowingCapableConsciousStonesDeterminedIgnorantEndeavorContinuingIndifferentBoastHuman Freedom
Author:Baruch Spinoza
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“If we conceive that anyone loves, desires, or hates anything which we ourselves love, desire, or hate, we shall thereupon regard the thing in question with more steadfast love, etc. On the contrary, if we think that anyone shrinks from something that we love, we shall undergo vacillation of the soul.”

IfsThinkingLifeSoulDesireHateSelf LoveRegardContraryEtcOne LoveShrinksSteadfastVacillationSteadfast Love
Book:The Road to Inner Freedom: The Ethics
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“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 menб 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.”

MenTryingLawDesirePassionCrimeObjectsNeededDirectStriveDetermineContraryInjuryLaughedLeisureForbiddenIngenuityFramed
Author:Baruch Spinoza
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