Quote

Sin cannot be conceived in a natural state, but only in a civil state, where it is decreed by common consent what is good or bad.

Baruch Spinoza

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Baruch Spinoza
Age: 44 †
Born: 1632
Born: November 24
Died: 1677
Died: February 21
Bible Translator
Grammarian
Instrument Maker
Linguist
Optical Instrument Maker
Philosopher
Political Scientist
Theologian
Translator
Amsterdam
Netherlands
Benedict de Spinoza
Baruch de Espinosa
Barukh Shpinozah
Benoît de Spinoza
Sbīnūzā
Ispīnūzā
Barukh Spinoza
Bento de Espinosa
Baruch d' Espinoza
Shpinozah
Baruch de Spinoza
Spinoza
Benoit de Spinoza
Benedictus De Spinoza
Benedictus Spinoza
Baruch Spinoza
Baruch Benedictus de Spinoza
State
Common
Natural
Cannot
Decreed
States
Conceived
Good
Consent
Civil
Sin

More quotes by Baruch Spinoza

Image
. . . to know the order of nature, and regard the universe as orderly is the highest function of the mind.
Baruch Spinoza
Image
In the state of nature, wrong-doing is impossible or, if anyone does wrong, it is to himself, not to another.
Baruch Spinoza
Image
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
Image
No matter how thin you slice it, there will always be two sides.
Baruch Spinoza
Image
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
Image
The safest way for a state is to lay down the rule that religion is comprised solely in the exercise of charity and justice, and that the rights of rulers in sacred, no less than in secular matters, should merely have to do with actions, but that every man should think what he likes and say what he thinks.
Baruch Spinoza
Image
Men who are ruled by reason desire nothing for themselves which they would not wish for all mankind.
Baruch Spinoza
Image
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
Image
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
Image
The proper study of a wise man is not how to die but how to live.
Baruch Spinoza
Image
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
Image
Better that right counsels be known to enemies than that the evil secrets of tyrants should be concealed from the citizens. They who can treat secretly of the affairs of a nation have it absolutely under their authority and as they plot against the enemy in time of war, so do they against the citizens in time of peace.
Baruch Spinoza
Image
Let unswerving integrity be your watchword.
Baruch Spinoza
Image
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.
Baruch Spinoza
Image
Love is nothing but joy accompanied with the idea of an eternal cause.
Baruch Spinoza
Image
Measure, time and number are nothing but modes of thought or rather of imagination.
Baruch Spinoza
Image
The supreme mystery of despotism, its prop and stay, is to keep men in a state of deception, and with the specious title of religion to cloak the fear by which they must be held in check, so that they will fight for their servitude as if for salvation.
Baruch Spinoza
Image
Nature has no goal in view, and final causes are only human imaginings.
Baruch Spinoza
Image
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 is new and unheard of, but only such things as agree best with practice.
Baruch Spinoza
Image
Fear cannot be without hope nor hope without fear. [They are the two sides of a coin, so learning how to manage fear through learning, understanding, rationality, controlled imagination, preparation, mental focus (including distraction) and a gratitude attitude is very helpful.]
Baruch Spinoza