Author

Baruch Spinoza

34 quotations

About Baruch Spinoza

Baruch (de) Spinoza, also known under his Latinized pen name Benedictus de Spinoza, was a philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin who was born and lived in the Dutch Republic. A forerunner of the Enlightenment, Spinoza significantly influenced modern biblical criticism, 17th-century rationalism, and Dutch intellectual culture, establishing himself as one of the most important and radical philosophers of the early modern period. Influenced by Stoicism, Thomas Hobbes, René Descartes, and heterodo…

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Topics: Nature Peace War Motivational Power Alone
For peace is not mere absence of war, but is a virtue that springs from, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.
Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.
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.
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.

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For peace is not mere absence of war, but is a virtue that springs from, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.
Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.
Only that thing is free which exists by the necessities of its own nature, and is determined in its actions by itself alone.
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.
Nothing in the universe is contingent, but all things are conditioned to exist and operate in a particular manner by the necessity of the divine nature.
Whatsoever is contrary to nature is contrary to reason, and whatsoever is contrary to reason is absurd.
One and the same thing can at the same time be good, bad, and indifferent, e.g., music is good to the melancholy, bad to those who mourn, and neither good nor bad to the deaf.
All happiness or unhappiness solely depends upon the quality of the object to which we are attached by love.
The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free.
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.