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Baruch Spinoza

Baruch Spinoza Quotes

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“In the state of nature, wrong-doing is impossible; or, if anyone does wrong, it is to himself, not to another. For no one by the law of nature is bound to please another, unless he chooses, nor to hold anything to be good or evil, but what he himself, according to his own temperament, pronounces to be so; and, to speak generally, nothing is forbidden by the law of nature, except what is beyond everyone's power.”

IfsDoeStatesLawEvilSpeakImpossibleCommunicationPleaseBoundsBe GoodForbiddenTemperamentLaws Of NatureNonviolent Communication
Author:Baruch Spinoza
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“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.”

IfsMenReligionMankindCircumstancesFortuneDrivenUselessUncertaintyFavourSuperstitiousCredulityHopes And Fears
Book:A Theologico-Political Treatise
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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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“If the way which I have pointed out as leading to this result (i.e., power over the emotions by which the wise man surpasses the ignorant man) seems exceedingly hard, it may nevertheless be discovered. Needs must it be hard, since it is so seldom found. How would it be possible, if salvation were ready to our hand, and could without great labour be found, that it should be by almost all men neglected? But all things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.”

IfsMenWayNeedsShouldMayHardHandsSeemsFoundDifficultResultsEmotionWiseReadyAll ThingsSalvationIgnorantExcellentLabourNeverthelessNeglected
Author:Baruch Spinoza
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“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.”

IfsMenGivingDoeRealityCommonExistenceOpinionDoubtDependsSubstancePropositionsHeedAxioms
Author:Baruch Spinoza
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