Baruch Spinoza

Benedictus de Spinoza was a social and metaphysical philosopher who was excommunicated from the Jewish community of his native Amsterdam. He was named Baruch Spinoza by his synagogue elders and known as Bento de Spinoza or Bento d'Espiñoza but afterwards used the name Benedictus de Spinoza.

Found 18 thoughts of Baruch Spinoza

Baruch Spinoza

Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.

Be not astonished at new ideas; for it is well known to you that a thing does not therefore cease to be true because it is not accepted by many.

None are more taken in by flattery than the proud, who wish to be the first and are not.

Nothing in the universe is contingent, but all things are conditioned to exist and operate in a particular manner by the necessity of the divine nature.

One and the same thing can at the same time be good, bad, and indifferent, e.g., music is good to the melancholy, bad to those who mourn, and neither good nor bad to the deaf.

Men govern nothing with more difficulty than their tongues, and can moderate their desires more than their words.

Nothing exists from whose nature some effect does not follow.

Only that thing is free which exists by the necessities of its own nature, and is determined in its actions by itself alone.

It may easily come to pass that a vain man may become proud and imagine himself pleasing to all when he is in reality a universal nuisance.

If men were born free, they would, so long as they remained free, form no conception of good and evil.

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

Do not weep; do not wax indignant. Understand.

Blessedness is not the reward of virtue, but virtue itself; neither do we rejoice therein, because we control our lusts, but contrariwise, because we rejoice therein, we are able to control our lusts.

The world would be happier if men had the same capacity to be silent that they have to speak.

Pride is pleasure arising from a man's thinking too highly of himself.

Fear cannot be without hope nor hope without fear.

Blessedness is not the reward of virtue but virtue itself.

How would it be possible if salvation were ready to our hand, and could without great labor be found, that it should be by almost all men neglected? But all things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.