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Baruch Spinoza

Baruch Spinoza Quotes

Philosopher

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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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“The greatest secret of monarchic rule...is to keep men deceived and to cloak in the specious name of religion the fear by which they must be checked, so that they will fight for slavery as they would for salvation, and will think it not shameful, but a most honorable achievement, to give their life and blood that one man may have a ground for boasting.”

ThinkingMenGivingMayFightingNamesSecretBloodAchievementSlaverySalvationOne ManHonorableBoastDeceivedShamefulCloaks
Author:Baruch Spinoza
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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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“Since love of God is the highest felicity and happiness of man, his final end and the aim of all his actions, it follows that he alone observes the divine law who is concerned to love God not from fear of punishment nor love of something else, such as pleasure, fame, ect., but from the single fact that he knows God, or that he knows that the knowledge and love of God is the highest good”

KnowsMenEndsFactsActionLawPleasureDivineFameHighestConcernedAnd LoveAimFinalsPunishmentGod LoveKnowing GodFelicityDivine Law
Author:Baruch Spinoza
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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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“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.”

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Author:Baruch Spinoza
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