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Baruch Spinoza

Baruch Spinoza Quotes

Philosopher

Baruch Spinoza, a 17th-century Dutch philosopher of Jewish descent, is renowned for his unique philosophical thoughts and critical analysis of religion. Spinoza's philosophy emphasizes the unity of reason, nature, and God, and has had a profound impact on Western philosophy.

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Famous Baruch Spinoza Quotes

“I saw that all the things I feared and which feared me had nothing good or bad in them save in so far as the mind was affected by them.”

Mind Fear Anxiety Inner Peace

Book:On the Improvement of Understanding

Source: On the Improvement of Understanding

“I shall treat the nature and power of the Affects, and the power of the Mind over them, by the same Method by which, in the preceding parts, I treated God and the Mind, and I shall consider human actions and appetites just as if it were a Question of lines, planes, and bodies.”

World Mind God Nature Emotions Mathematics Thought Human Being Bodies Passions Natural Laws Extension

Book:Complete Works

Source: Complete Works

“I saw that all things I feared, and which feared me, had nothing good or bad in them save insofar as the mind was affected by them.”

Mind Saws All Things Affected

Author:Baruch Spinoza

“The less the mind understands and the more things it perceives, the greater its power of feigning is; and the more things it understands, the more that power is diminished.”

Mind Greater Perceive Feigning

Author:Baruch Spinoza

“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.”

Mind Real Facts Might Social Enjoy Seeing Objects Taught Discovery Communicate Supreme Vain Affected Usual Surroundings Attainment Social Life Exclusion Unending

Book:How to Improve Your Mind

Source: How to Improve Your Mind

“. . . to know the order of nature, and regard the universe as orderly is the highest function of the mind.”

Knows Mind Order Universe Highest Function Regard Orderly

Author:Baruch Spinoza

“As though God had turned away from the wise, and written his decrees, not in the mind of man but in the entrails of beasts, or left them to be proclaimed by the inspiration and instinct of fools, madmen, and birds. Such is the unreason to which terror can drive mankind!”

Men Mind Inspiration Left Wise Written Mankind Fool Bird Instinct Terror Beast Madmen Decree

Author:Baruch Spinoza

“The eternal wisdom of God ... has shown itself forth in all things, but chiefly in the mind of man, and most of all in Jesus Christ.”

Men Mind Jesus Christ Eternal Jesus Christ All Things

Author:Baruch Spinoza

“To comprehend an idea, a person must simultaneously accept it as true. Conscious analysis - which, depending on the idea, may occur almost immediately or with considerable effort - allows the mind to reject what it intially accepted as fact.”

Mind May Persons Ideas Facts Effort Accepting Conscious Accepted Analysis Rejects

Author:Baruch Spinoza

“The things which ... are esteemed as the greatest good of all ... can be reduced to these three headings, to wit : Riches, Fame, and Pleasure. With these three the mind is so engrossed that it cannot scarcely think of any other good.”

Thinking Mind Three Pleasure Fame Riches Wit Headings

Author:Baruch Spinoza

“The mind can only imagine anything, or remember what is past, while the body endures.”

Mind Body Past Remember Imagine Endure

Book:Ethics

Source: Ethics

“In the mind there is no absolute or free will.”

Mind Absolutes Free Will Determinism

Book:Spinoza: The Complete Works

Source: Spinoza: The Complete Works

“Whatever increases, decreases, limits or extends the body's power of action, increases decreases, limits, or extends the mind's power of action. And whatever increases, decreases, limits, or extends the mind's power of action, also increases, decreases, limits, or extends the body's power of action.”

Mind Body Action Limits Increase Decrease

Author:Baruch Spinoza

“For peace is not mere absence of war, but is a virtue that springs from force of character: for obedience is the constant will to execute what, by the general decree of the commonwealth, ought to be done.”

“In so far as the mind sees things in their eternal aspect, it participates in eternity.”

Mind Eternal Aspect Eternity Aesthetic

Author:Baruch Spinoza

“Minds are not conquered by force, but by love and high-mindedness.”

Life Mind Force

Book:The Road to Inner Freedom: The Ethics

Source: The Road to Inner Freedom: The Ethics

“In so far as men are influenced by envy or any kind of hatred, one towards another, they are at variance, and are therefore to be feared in proportion, as they are more powerful than their fellows. Yet minds are not conquered by force, but by love and high-mindedness.”

Men Life Mind Kind Force Powerful Hatred Fellows Envy Proportion Variance

Book:Ethics

Source: Ethics

“In the mind there is no absolute or free will; but the mind is determined to wish this or that by a cause, which has also been determined by another cause, and this last by another cause, and so on to infinity.”

Mind Lasts Wish Causes Absolutes Determined Free Will Infinity

Book:Ethics

Source: Ethics

“He that can carp in the most eloquent or acute manner at the weakness of the human mind is held by his fellows as almost divine.”

Mind Humans Divine Morality Ethics Weakness Fellows Human Mind Eloquent Carp

Author:Baruch Spinoza

“The highest endeavor of the mind, and the highest virtue, it to understand things by intuition.”

Mind Wisdom Understanding Virtue Highest Intuition Endeavor

Book:The Road to Inner Freedom: The Ethics

Source: The Road to Inner Freedom: The Ethics

“Laws which prescribe what everyone must believe, and forbid men to say or write anything against this or that opinion, are often passed to gratify, or rather to appease the anger of those who cannot abide independent minds.”

Men Writing Mind Believe Law Opinion Atheism Independent Positive Atheism Appease

Author:Baruch Spinoza

“The mind has greater power over the emotions, and is less subject thereto, insofar as it understands all things to be necessary.”

Mind Emotion Greater Subjects All Things Greater Power

Book:The Road to Inner Freedom: The Ethics

Source: The Road to Inner Freedom: The Ethics

“The human mind cannot be absolutely destroyed along with the body, but something of it remains, which is eternal.”

Mind Humans Soul Body Eternal Remains Destroyed Human Mind

Book:Spinoza: The Complete Works

Source: Spinoza: The Complete Works

“Man can, indeed, act contrarily to the decrees of God, as far as they have been written like laws in the minds of ourselves or the prophets, but against that eternal decree of God, which is written in universal nature, and has regard to the course of nature as a whole, he can do nothing.”

Men Mind Has Beens Whole Law Courses Can Do Written Eternal Universal Regard Prophet Decree

Author:Baruch Spinoza

“As men's habits of mind differ, so that some more readily embrace one form of faith, some another, for what moves one to pray may move another to scoff, I conclude ... that everyone should be free to choose for himself the foundations of his creed, and that faith should be judged only by its fruits.”

Men Should Mind May Moving Form Praying Habit Foundation Embrace Fruit Judged Creeds Habits Of Mind

Author:Baruch Spinoza

“The greatest good is the knowledge of the union which the mind has with the whole nature.”

Mind Whole Unions

Author:Baruch Spinoza

“The idea, which constitutes the actual being of the human mind, is not simple, but compounded of a great number of ideas.”

Mind Humans Ideas Simple Numbers Human Mind

Book:Ethics

Source: Ethics

About the Author

Born: November 24, 1632
Died: February 21, 1677
Known for: Philosopher
Quotes: 256

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Men Ifs Mind Philosophical Causes Life Philosophy Reason Desire Should Thinking Action Emotion Humans Law Virtue Hatred All Things Endeavor Ethics

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Books & Sources

EthicsRelated source material

The Road to Inner Freedom: The EthicsRelated source material

Theological-Political TreatiseRelated source material

Letters to Friend and FoeRelated source material

The Essential Spinoza: Ethics and Related WritingsRelated source material

A Theologico-Political TreatiseRelated source material

Complete WorksRelated source material

Ethics: with The Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect and Selected LettersRelated source material

Spinoza: The Complete WorksRelated source material

Tratado de la reforma del entendimiento. Principios de filosofía de Descartes. Pensamientos metafísicosRelated source material

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