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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

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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
Must
Stay
Title
Specious
Men
Fight
Check
Prop
State
Titles
Cloak
Fighting
Checks
Cloaks
Religion
Held
Servitude
Fear
Salvation
Props
Keep
Supreme
Despotism
States
Mystery
Deception

More quotes by Baruch Spinoza

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Things which are accidentally the causes either of hope or fear are called good or evil omens.
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So long as a man imagines that he cannot do this or that, so long as he is determined not to do it and consequently so long as it is impossible to him that he should do it.
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Pride is pleasure arising from a man's thinking too highly of himself.
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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.
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Ambition is the immoderate desire for honor.
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I make this chief distinction between religion and superstition, that the latter is founded on ignorance, the former on knowledge.
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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.
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Desire nothing for yourself, which you do not desire for others.
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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.
Baruch Spinoza
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Laws directed against opinions affect the generous-minded rather than the wicked, and are adapted less for coercing criminals than for irritating the upright.
Baruch Spinoza
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We are so constituted by Nature that we easily believe the things we hope for, but believe only with difficulty those we fear, and that we regard such things more or less highly than is just. This is the source of the superstitions by which men everywhere are troubled. For the rest, I don
Baruch Spinoza
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I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of established religion.
Baruch Spinoza
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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.
Baruch Spinoza
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There is no fear without some hope, and no hope without some fear.
Baruch Spinoza
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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.
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. . . to know the order of nature, and regard the universe as orderly is the highest function of the mind.
Baruch Spinoza
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If facts conflict with a theory, either the theory must be changed or the facts.
Baruch Spinoza
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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
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If anyone conceives that he is loved by another, and believes that he has given no cause for such love, he will love that other in return.
Baruch Spinoza
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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