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Baruch Spinoza

Baruch Spinoza Quotes

Philosopher

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Famous Baruch Spinoza Quotes

“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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“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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“The terms good and bad indicate no positive quality in things regarded in themselves, but are merely modes of thinking or notions, which we form from the comparison of things one with another. Thus one and the same thing can be at the same time good, bad, and indifferent. For instance, music is good for him that is melancholy, bad for him that mourns; for him that is deaf; it is neither good nor bad.”

ThinkingFormTermQualityGratitudeMusic IsNotionInstanceComparisonMelancholyIndifferentDeafGood And BadMourn
Book:Ethics
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