I saw that all things I feared, and which feared me, had nothing good or bad in them save insofar as the mind was affected by them. - Baruch Spinoza
those, who are believed to be most self—abased and humble, are generally in reality the most ambitious and envious - Baruch Spinoza
the ultimate aim of government is not to rule, or restrain by fear, nor to exact obedience, but to free every man from fear that he may live in all possible security... In fact the true aim of government is liberty. - Baruch Spinoza
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
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. - Baruch Spinoza
Do not weep; do not wax indignant. Understand. - Baruch Spinoza
If men were born free, they would, so long as they remained free, form no conception of good and evil. - Baruch Spinoza
I call him free who is led solely by reason. - Baruch Spinoza
Those who know the true use of money, and regulate the measure of wealth according to their needs, live contented with few things. - Baruch Spinoza
The mind has greater power over the emotions, and is less subject thereto, insofar as it understands all things to be necessary. - Baruch Spinoza
The highest endeavor of the mind, and the highest virtue, is to understand things by intuition. - Baruch Spinoza
For peace is not mere absence of war, but is a virtue that springs from the force of character. - Baruch Spinoza
Such things as are good simply because they have been commanded or instituted, or as being symbols of something good, are mere shadows which cannot be reckoned among actions that are the offspring, as it were, or fruit of a sound mind and of intellect. - Baruch Spinoza
Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice. - Baruch Spinoza
Blessed are the weak who think that they are good because they have no claws. - Baruch Spinoza
The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free. - Baruch Spinoza
I have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule, not to bewail, not to scorn human actions, but to understand them. - Baruch Spinoza
Der Endzweck des Staates ist [...] im Grund die Freiheit. - Baruch Spinoza
He alone is free who lives with free consent under the entire guidance of reason - Baruch Spinoza
Things which are accidentally the causes either of hope or fear are called good or evil omens. - Baruch Spinoza
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. - Baruch Spinoza
I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of the peace. - Baruch Spinoza
God is a thing that thinks. - Baruch Spinoza
I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of established religion. - Baruch Spinoza
Don’t cry and don’t rage. Understand. - Baruch Spinoza
whatsoever is, is in God, and without God nothing can be, or be conceived - Baruch Spinoza
Blessedness is not the reward of virtue, but virtue itself; neither do we rejoice therein, because we control our lusts, but contrariwise, because we rejoice therein, we are able to control our lusts. - Baruch Spinoza
All the objects pursued by the multitude not only bring no remedy that tends to preserve our being, but even act as hinderances, causing the death not seldom of those who possess them, and always of those who are possessed by them. - Baruch Spinoza
When a man is prey to his emotions, he is not his own master. - Baruch Spinoza
That by the decrees and volitions, and consequently the providence of God, Scripture (as I will prove by Scriptural examples) means nothing but Nature's order following necessarily from her eternal laws. - Baruch Spinoza