“If we love something similar to ourselves, we endeavor, as far as we can, to bring it about that it should love us in return.” … Read More
“The multitude always strains after rarities and exceptions, and thinks little of the gifts of nature; so that, when prophecy is talked of, ordinary knowledge … Read More
“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 … Read More
“I do not presume that I have found the best philosophy, I know that I understand the true philosophy.” 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 … Read More
“I have resolved to demonstrate by a certain and undoubted course of argument, or to deduce from the very condition of human nature, not what … Read More
“Things could not have been brought into being by God in any manner or in any order different from that which has in fact obtained.” … Read More
“Yet nature cannot be contravened, but preserves a fixed and immutable order.” 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 … Read More
“The greater emotion with which we conceive a loved object to be affected toward us, the greater will be our complacency.” Baruch Spinoza
“Self-complacency is pleasure accompanied by the idea of oneself as cause.” Baruch Spinoza
“According as each has been educated, so he repents of or glories in his actions.” Baruch Spinoza
“I shall consider human actions and desires in exactly the same manner, as though I were concerned with lines, planes and solids.” Baruch Spinoza
“The idea, which constitutes the actual being of the human mind, is not simple, but compounded of a great number of ideas.” Baruch Spinoza
“Hatred which is completely vanquished by love passes into love: and love is thereupon greater than if hatred had not preceded it.” Baruch Spinoza
“Things which are accidentally the causes either of hope or fear are called good or evil omens.” Baruch Spinoza
“Blessedness is not the reward of virtue but virtue itself.” 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, … Read More
“All the objects pursued by the multitude not only bring no remedy that tends to preserve our being, but even act as hinderances, causing the … Read More
“Simply from the fact that we have regarded a thing with the emotion of pleasure or pain, though that thing be not the efficient cause … Read More
