Spinoza

Dutch Philosopher (1632 – 1626)

Benedict de Spinoza was a Portuguese Jewish philosopher and rationalist who laid the foundation for the 18th century enlightenment and modern biblical criticisms. Although he was a philosopher his main trade was as a lens grinder, despite the fact that he was offered lucrative teaching positions he turned them down to maintain a solitary lifestyle. Perhaps the greatest sentiment to his choice not to teach is that a philosopher hopes to allow people to see clearly, by creating lenses Spinoza not only helped people to see in a literal sense but through his philosophy helped those see clearly through his own lens.

Quotes:

All noble things are as difficult as they are rare.

Freedom is absolutely necessary for the progress in science and the liberal arts.

One and the same thing can at the same time be good, bad, and indifferent. 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.

If men were born free, they would, so long as they remained free, form no conception of good and evil.

I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of established religion.

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.

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.

Happiness is a virtue, not its reward.

Men govern nothing with more difficulty than their tongues, and can moderate their desires more than their words.

I have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule, not to bewail, not to scorn human actions, but to understand them.

Do not weep; do not wax indignant. Understand.

Will and intellect are one and the same thing.

Self-complacency is pleasure accompanied by the idea of oneself as cause.

Nothing exists from whose nature some effect does not follow.

Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.

The greatest pride, or the greatest despondency, is the greatest ignorance of one’s self.

I have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule, not to bewail, not to scorn human actions, but to understand them.

Pride is pleasure arising from a man’s thinking too highly of himself.

The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free.

Whatsoever is, is in God, and without God nothing can be, or be conceived.

Happiness is a virtue, not its reward.

Those who are believed to be most abject and humble are usually most ambitious and envious.

Fame has also this great drawback, that if we pursue it, we must direct our lives so as to please the fancy of men.

Fear cannot be without hope nor hope without fear.

The world would be happier if men had the same capacity to be silent that they have to speak.

I call him free who is led solely by reason.

None are more taken in by flattery than the proud, who wish to be the first and are not.

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.