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Philosophers conceive of the passions which harass us as vices into which men fall by their own fault, and, therefore, generally deride, bewail, or blame them, or execrate them, if they wish to seem unusually pious.

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
Fall
Philosopher
Harass
Seems
Generally
Unusually
Men
Faults
Pious
Blame
Conceive
Therefore
Philosophers
Seem
Passions
Passion
Fault
Bewail
Wish
Vices
Deride

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Hatred which is completely vanquished by love passes into love: and love is thereupon greater than if hatred had not preceded it.
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Those who wish to seek out the cause of miracles and to understand the things of nature as philosophers, and not to stare at them in astonishment like fools, are soon considered heretical and impious, and proclaimed as such by those whom the mob adores as the interpreters of nature and the gods.
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Statesman are suspected of plotting against mankind, rather than consulting their interests, and are esteemed more crafty than learned.
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Be not astonished at new ideas for it is well known to you that a thing does not therefore cease to be true because it is not accepted by many.
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The greatest pride, or the greatest despondency, is the greatest ignorance of one's self.
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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.
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The virtue of a free man appears equally great in refusing to face difficulties as in overcoming them.
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Freedom is self-determination.
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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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Surely human affairs would be far happier if the power in men to be silent were the same as that to speak. But experience more than sufficiently teaches that men govern nothing with more difficulty than their tongues.
Baruch Spinoza
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Everything in nature is a cause from which there flows some effect.
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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.
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Fear cannot be without hope nor hope without fear.
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Ambition is the immoderate desire for honor.
Baruch Spinoza
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Desire nothing for yourself, which you do not desire for others.
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Human infirmity in moderating and checking the emotions I name bondage : for, when a man is a prey to his emotions, he is not his own master, but lies at the mercy of fortune : so much so, that he is often compelled, while seeing that which is better for him, to follow that which is worse.
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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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The highest endeavor of the mind, and the highest virtue, it to understand things by intuition.
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Let unswerving integrity be your watchword.
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Self-complacency is pleasure accompanied by the idea of oneself as cause.
Baruch Spinoza