1632-1677, Dutch Philosopher and Theologian
All excellent things are as difficult as they are rare.
Baruch (Benedict de) Spinoza – [Perfection]
Desire is the essence of a man.
Baruch (Benedict de) Spinoza – [Desire]
Fame has also this great drawback, that if we pursue it, we must direct our lives so as to please the fancy of men.
Baruch (Benedict de) Spinoza – [Fame]
Fear cannot be without hope nor hope without fear.
Baruch (Benedict de) Spinoza – [Hope]
I have striven not to laugh at human actions, not to weep at them, nor to hate them, but to understand them.
Baruch (Benedict de) Spinoza – [Understanding]
I would warn you that I do not attribute to nature either beauty or deformity, order or confusion. Only in relation to our imagination can things be called beautiful or ugly, well-ordered or confused.
Baruch (Benedict de) Spinoza – [Beauty]
Men govern nothing with more difficulty than their tongues, and can moderate their desires more than their words.
Baruch (Benedict de) Spinoza – [Speakers and Speaking]
Music is good to the melancholy, bad to those who mourn, and neither good or bad to the deaf.
Baruch (Benedict de) Spinoza – [Music]
None are more taken in by flattery than the proud, who wish to be the first and are not.
Baruch (Benedict de) Spinoza – [Flattery]
Only that thing is free which exists by the necessities of its own nature, and is determined in its actions by itself alone.
Baruch (Benedict de) Spinoza – [Freedom]
Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.
Baruch (Benedict de) Spinoza – [Peace]
Pride is pleasure arising from a man's thinking too highly of himself.
Baruch (Benedict de) Spinoza – [Pride]
The greatest pride, or the greatest despondency, is the greatest ignorance of one's self.
Baruch (Benedict de) Spinoza – [Ignorance]
The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free.
Baruch (Benedict de) Spinoza – [Understanding]
Those who are believed to be most abject and humble are usually most ambitious and envious.
Baruch (Benedict de) Spinoza – [Humility]
To give aid to every poor man is far beyond the reach and power of every man. Care of the poor is incumbent on society as a whole.
Baruch (Benedict de) Spinoza – [Aid and Assistance]
We feel and know that we are eternal.
Baruch (Benedict de) Spinoza – [Immortality]
Will and intellect are one and the same.
Baruch (Benedict de) Spinoza – [Will and Will Power]