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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

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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
Understands
Perceive
Greater
Less
Power
Mind
Feigning
Things
Perceives
Diminished

More quotes by Baruch Spinoza

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The most tyrannical of governments are those which make crimes of opinions, for everyone has an inalienable right to his thoughts.
Baruch Spinoza
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Many errors, of a truth, consist merely in the application of the wrong names of things. For if a man says that the lines which are drawn from the centre of the circle to the circumference are not equal, he understands by the circle, at all events for the time, something else than mathematicians understand by it.
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Yet nature cannot be contravened, but preserves a fixed and immutable order.
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Let unswerving integrity be your watchword.
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Love is nothing but joy accompanied with the idea of an eternal cause.
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No one doubts but that we imagine time from the very fact that we imagine other bodies to be moved slower or faster or equally fast. We are accustomed to determine duration by the aid of some measure of motion.
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I make this chief distinction between religion and superstition, that the latter is founded on ignorance, the former on knowledge.
Baruch Spinoza
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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.
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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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There is no fear without some hope, and no hope without some fear.
Baruch Spinoza
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All happiness or unhappiness solely depends upon the quality of the object to which we are attached by love.
Baruch Spinoza
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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.
Baruch Spinoza
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[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.
Baruch Spinoza
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Academies that are founded at public expense are instituted not so much to cultivate men's natural abilities as to restrain them.
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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No to laugh, not to lament, not to detest, but to understand.
Baruch Spinoza
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Reason connot defeat emotion, an emotion can only be displaced or overcome by a stronger emotion.
Baruch Spinoza
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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
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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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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