Baruch Spinoza
.... we are a part of nature as a whole, whose order we follow.Collection: Order
Desire is the very essence of manCollection: Philosophy
Love or hatred towards a thing, which we conceive to be free, must, other things being similar, be greater than if it were felt towards a thing acting by necessity.Collection: Life
In so far as the mind sees things in their eternal aspect, it participates in eternity.Collection: Mind
The virtue of a free man appears equally great in refusing to face difficulties as in overcoming them.Collection: Men
Ceremonies are no aid to blessedness.Collection: Aids
Measure, time and number are nothing but modes of thought or rather of imagination.Collection: Science
The proper study of a wise man is not how to die but how to live.Collection: Wise
Superstition, then, is engendered, preserved, and fostered by fear.Collection: Superstitions
Philosophy has no end in view save truth; faith looks for nothing but obedience and piety.Collection: Philosophy
Let unswerving integrity be your watchword.Collection: Integrity
What everyone wants from life is continuous and genuine happiness.Collection: Life
He who regulates everything by laws, is more likely to arouse vices than reform them.Collection: Law
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.Collection: Believe
Hatred is increased by being reciprocated, and can on the other hand be destroyed by love.Collection: Life
Sadness diminishes a man's powersCollection: Sadness
Nature has no goal in view, and final causes are only human imaginings.Collection: Views
He, who knows how to distinguish between true and false, must have an adequate idea of true and false.Collection: Ideas
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.Collection: Mind
[Believers] are but triflers who, when they cannot explain a thing, run back to the will of God; this is, truly, a ridiculous way of expressing ignorance.Collection: Running
He who loves God cannot endeavor that God should love him in return.Collection: Return
Men who are ruled by reason desire nothing for themselves which they would not wish for all mankind.Collection: Men
Academies that are founded at public expense are instituted not so much to cultivate men's natural abilities as to restrain them.Collection: School
Everything excellent is as difficult as it is rare.Collection: Excellent
I believe that a triangle, if it could speak, would say that God is eminently triangular, and a circle that the divine nature is eminently circular; and thus would every one ascribe his own attributes to God.Collection: Believe
Those who know the true use of money, and regulate the measure of wealth according to their needs, live contented with few things.Collection: Needs
Big fish eat small fish with as much right as they have power.Collection: Lakes
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.Collection: Mind
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.Collection: Believe
A good thing which prevents us from enjoying a greater good is in truth an evil.Collection: Evil
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.Collection: Care
the ultimate aim of government is not to rule, or restrain by fear, nor to exact obedience, but to free every man from fear that he may live in all possible security... In fact the true aim of government is liberty.Collection: Men
The greatest good is the knowledge of the union which the mind has with the whole nature.Collection: Mind
I can control my passions and emotions if I can understand their natureCollection: Philosophical
Pride is over-estimation of oneself by reason of self-love.Collection: Pride
Everyone endeavors as much as possible to make others love what he loves, and to hate what he hates... This effort to make everyone approve what we love or hate is in truth ambition, and so we see that each person by nature desires that other persons should live according to his way of thinking.Collection: Hate
Nature is satisfied with little; and if she is, I am also.Collection: Littles
Everything great is just as difficult to realize as it is rare to find.Collection: Realizing
No to laugh, not to lament, not to detest, but to understand.Collection: Laughing
. . . to know the order of nature, and regard the universe as orderly is the highest function of the mind.Collection: Order
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.Collection: Jesus
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.Collection: Mind
We can always get along better by reason and love of truth than by worry of conscience and remorse...we should strive to keep worry from our life.Collection: Worry
A man is as much affected pleasurably or painfully by the image of a thing past or future as by the image of a thing present.Collection: Past
I do not presume that I have found the best philosophy, I know that I understand the true philosophy.Collection: Philosophy
The more a government strives to curtail freedom of speech, the more obstinately is it resisted; not indeed by the avaricious, ... but by those whom good education, sound morality, and virtue have rendered more free.Collection: Government
The mind can only imagine anything, or remember what is past, while the body endures.Collection: Past
Men will find that they can ... avoid far more easily the perils which beset them on all sides by united action.Collection: Men
It is not possible that we should remember that we existed before our body, for our can bear no trace of such existence, neither can eternity be defined in terms of time or have any relation to time. But notwithstanding, we feel and know that we are eternal.Collection: Body