Baruch Spinoza Quotes & Sayings

In the state of nature, wrong-doing is impossible ; or, if anyone does wrong, it is to himself, not to another. — Baruch Spinoza

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

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

Of all the things that are beyond my power, I value nothing more highly than to be allowed the honor of entering into bonds of friendship with people who sincerely love truth. For, of things beyond our power, I believe there is nothing in the world which we can love with tranquility except such men. — Baruch Spinoza

He who has a true idea simultaneously knows that he has a true idea, and cannot doubt of the truth of the thing perceived. — Baruch Spinoza

Reality and perfection are synonymous. — Baruch Spinoza

Men will find that they can ... avoid far more easily the perils which beset them on all sides by united action. — Baruch Spinoza

Better that right counsels be known to enemies than that the evil secrets of tyrants should be concealed from citizens. — Baruch Spinoza

He who would distinguish the true from the false must have an adequate idea of what is true and false. — Baruch Spinoza

Except God no substance can be granted or conceived.. Everything, I say, is in God, and all things which are made, are made by the laws of the infinite nature of God, and necessarily follows from the necessity of his essence. — Baruch Spinoza

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. — Baruch Spinoza

It is sure that those are most desirous of honour or glory who cry out loudest of its abuse and the vanity of the world. — Baruch Spinoza

Men believe themselves to be free, simply because they are conscious of their actions, and unconscious of the causes whereby those actions are determined. — Baruch Spinoza

In so far as the mind sees things in their eternal aspect, it participates in eternity. — Baruch Spinoza

The most tyrannical of governments are those which make crimes of opinions, for everyone has an inalienable right to his thoughts. — 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. — Baruch Spinoza

In practical life we are compelled to follow what is most probable ; in speculative thought we are compelled to follow truth. — Baruch Spinoza

Schisms do not originate in a love of truth, which is a source of courtesy and gentleness, but rather in an inordinate desire for supremacy. — Baruch Spinoza

Nothing comes to pass in nature, which can be set down to a flaw therein; for nature is always the same and everywhere one and thesame in her efficiency and power of action; that is, nature's laws and ordinances whereby all things come to pass and change from one form to another, are everywhere and always; so that there should be one and the same method of understanding the nature of all things whatsoever, namely, through nature's universal laws and rules. — Baruch Spinoza

Everything great is just as difficult to realize as it is rare to find. — Baruch Spinoza

Nature has no goal in view, and final causes are only human imaginings. — Baruch Spinoza

Big fish eat small fish with as much right as they have power. — Baruch Spinoza

We must take care not to admit as true anything, which is only probable. For when one falsity has been let in, infinite others follow. — Baruch Spinoza

If anyone conceives, that an object of his love joins itself to another with closer bonds of friendship than he himself has attained to, he will be affected with hatred towards the loved object and with envy towards his rival. — Baruch Spinoza

I should attempt to treat human vice and folly geometrically ... the passions of hatred, anger, envy, and so on, considered in themselves, follow from the necessity and efficacy of nature ... I shall, therefore, treat the nature and strength of the emotion in exactly the same manner, as though I were concerned with lines, planes, and solids. — Baruch Spinoza

He who seeks to regulate everything by law is more likely to arouse vices than to reform them. It is best to grant what cannot be abolished, even though it be in itself harmful. How many evils spring from luxury, envy, avarice, drunkenness and the like, yet these are tolerated because they cannot be prevented by legal enactments. — Baruch Spinoza

God and all attributes of God are eternal. — Baruch Spinoza

Do not weep. Do not wax indignant. Understand. — Baruch Spinoza

If Scripture were to describe the downfall of an empire in the style adopted by political historians, the common people would not be stirred. — Baruch Spinoza

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. — Baruch Spinoza

Minds, however, are conquered not by arms, but by love and nobility. — Baruch Spinoza

A free man thinks of nothing less than of death, and his wisdom is a meditation, not on death, but on life. — Baruch Spinoza

Desire nothing for yourself, which you do not desire for others. — Baruch Spinoza

When a man is prey to his emotions, he is not his own master. — Baruch Spinoza

Nature is satisfied with little; and if she is, I am also. — Baruch Spinoza

We strive to further the occurrence of whatever we imagine will lead to Joy, and to avert or destroy what we imagine is contrary to it, or will lead to Sadness. — Baruch Spinoza

I say expressly, that the mind has not an adequate but only a confused knowledge of itself, its own body, and of external bodies, whenever it perceives things after the common order of nature; that is, whenever it is determined from without, namely, by the fortuitous play of circumstance, to regard this or that; not at such times as it is determined from within, that is, by the fact of regarding several things at once, to understand their points of agreement, difference, and contrast. Whenever it is determined in anywise from within, it regards things clearly and distinctly, as I will show below. — Baruch Spinoza

What Paul says about Peter tells us more about Paul than about Peter — Baruch Spinoza

I do not presume that I have found the best philosophy, I know that I understand the true philosophy. — Baruch Spinoza

Things which are accidentally the causes either of hope or fear are called good or evil omens. — Baruch Spinoza

The mind can only imagine anything, or remember what is past, while the body endures. — Baruch Spinoza

Falsity consists in the privation of knowledge, which inadequate, fragmentary, or confused ideas involve. — Baruch Spinoza

Fame has also this great drawback, that if we pursue it, we must direct our lives so as to please the fancy of men. — Baruch Spinoza

Freedom is absolutely necessary for the progress in science and the liberal arts. — Baruch Spinoza

I do not believe anyone has reached such perfection, surpassing all others, except Christ, to whom God immediately revealed - without words or visions - the conditions which lead to
salvation. — Baruch Spinoza

Yet nature cannot be contravened, but preserves a fixed and immutable order. — Baruch Spinoza

The proper study of a wise man is not how to die but how to live. — Baruch Spinoza

I care not for the girdings of superstition, for superstition is the bitter enemy of knowledge & true morality. Yes; it has come to this! Men who openly confess that they can form no idea of God, & only know him through created things, of which they know not the causes, can unblushingly accuse philosophers of Atheism. — Baruch Spinoza

Let unswerving integrity be your watchword. — Baruch Spinoza

Academies that are founded at public expense are instituted not so much to cultivate men's natural abilities as to restrain them. — Baruch Spinoza

Self-preservation is the primary and only foundation of virtue. — Baruch Spinoza

If you want the present to be different from the past, study the past. — Baruch Spinoza

Ceremonies are no aid to blessedness. — Baruch Spinoza

True knowledge of good and evil as we possess is merely abstract or general, and the judgment which we pass on the order of things and the connection of causes, with a view to determining what is good or bad for us in the present, is rather imaginary than real. — Baruch Spinoza

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. — Baruch Spinoza

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

The more we understand individual things, the more we understand God. — Baruch Spinoza

I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of the peace. — Baruch Spinoza

The object of the idea constituting the human mind is the body — Baruch Spinoza

There can be no hope without fear, and no fear without hope. — Baruch Spinoza

I will only say generally, that in proportion as any given body is more fitted than others for doing many actions or receiving many impressions at once, so also is the mind, of which it is the object, more fitted than others for forming many simultaneous perceptions; and the more the actions of the body depend on itself alone, and the fewer other bodies concur with it in action, the more fitted is the mind of which it is the object for distinct comprehension. We may thus recognize the superiority of one mind over others, and may further see the cause, why we have only a very confused knowledge of our body, and also many kindred questions, which I will, in the following propositions, deduce from what has been advanced. — Baruch Spinoza

Nothing forbids man to enjoy himself, save grim and gloomy superstition — Baruch Spinoza

Reason connot defeat emotion, an emotion can only be displaced or overcome by a stronger emotion. — Baruch Spinoza

He who seeks equality between unequals seeks an absurdity. — Baruch Spinoza

There is no hope unmingled with fear, and no fear unmingled with hope. — Baruch Spinoza

In proportion as we endeavor to live according to the guidance of reason, shall we strive as much as possible to depend less on hope, to liberate ourselves from fear, to rule fortune, and to direct our actions by the sure counsels of reason. — Baruch Spinoza

According as each has been educated, so he repents of or glories in his actions. — Baruch Spinoza

He who, while unacquainted with these writings, nevertheless knows by the natural light that there is a God having the attributes we have recounted, and who also pursues a true way of life, is altogether blessed. — Baruch Spinoza

No matter how thin you slice it, there will always be two sides. — Baruch Spinoza

Desire is the very essence of man. — Baruch Spinoza

The more intelligible a thing is, the more easily it is retained in the memory, and counterwise, the less intelligible it is, the more easily we forget it. — Baruch Spinoza

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. — 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. — Baruch Spinoza

Freedom is self-determination. — Baruch Spinoza

It is usually the case with most men that their nature is so constituted that they pity those who fare badly and envy those who fare well. — Baruch Spinoza

Love is pleasure accompanied by the idea of an external cause, and hatred pain accompanied by the idea of an external cause. — Baruch Spinoza

True virtue is life under the direction of reason. — Baruch Spinoza

All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare. — Baruch Spinoza

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

The virtue of a free man appears equally great in refusing to face difficulties as in overcoming them. — Baruch Spinoza

Those who know the true use of money, and regulate the measure of wealth according to their needs, live contented with few things. — Baruch Spinoza

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. — Baruch Spinoza

We are a part of nature as a whole, whose order we follow. — Baruch Spinoza

It is certain that seditions, wars, and contempt or breach of the laws are not so much to be imputed to the wickedness of the subjects, as to the bad state of the dominion. — Baruch Spinoza

He alone is free who lives with free consent under the entire guidance of reason. — Baruch Spinoza

Reason is no match for passion. — Baruch Spinoza

The more you struggle to live, the less you live. Give up the notion that you must be sure of what you are doing. Instead, surrender to what is real within you, for that alone is sure ... you are above everything distressing. — Baruch Spinoza

A miracle signifies nothing more than an event ... the cause of which cannot be explained by another familiar instance, or ... which the narrator is unable to explain. — Baruch Spinoza

In the mind there is no absolute or free will. — Baruch Spinoza

By substance, I mean that which is in itself, and is conceived through itself: in — Baruch Spinoza

Laws which can be broken without any wrong to one's neighbor are a laughing-stock; and such laws, instead of restraining the appetites and lusts of mankind, serve rather to heighten them. Nitimur in vetitum semper, cupimusque negata [we always resist prohibitions, and yearn for what is denied us]. — Baruch Spinoza

Men are especially intolerant of serving and being ruled by, their equals. — Baruch Spinoza

Things are not more or less perfect, according as they delight or offend human senses, or according as they are serviceable or repugnant to mankind. — Baruch Spinoza

Everyone has as much right as he has might. — Baruch Spinoza

He who wishes to revenge injuries by reciprocal hatred will live in misery. But he who endeavors to drive away hatred by means of love, fights with pleasure and confidence; he resists equally one or many men, and scarcely needs at all the help of fortune. Those whom he conquers yield joyfully — Baruch Spinoza

From what has been said we can clearly understand the nature of Love and Hate. Love is nothing else but pleasure accompanied by the idea of an external cause: Hate is nothing else but pain accompanied by the idea of an external cause. We further see, that he who loves necessarily endeavors to have, and to keep present to him, the object of his love; while he who hates endeavors to remove and destroy the object of his hatred. — Baruch Spinoza

The highest endeavor of the mind, and the highest virtue, it to understand things by intuition. — Baruch Spinoza

Superstitious persons, who know better how to rail at vice than how to teach virtue, and who strive not to guide men by reason, but so to restrain them that they would rather escape evil than love virtue, have no other aim but to make others as wretched as themselves. Wherefore it is nothing wonderful, if they be generally troublesome and odious to their fellow man. — Baruch Spinoza

Fear cannot be without hope nor hope without fear. — Baruch Spinoza

Indulge yourself in pleasures only in so far as they are necessary for the preservation of health. — Baruch Spinoza