Baruch Spinoza

Name: Spinoza: Complete Works
ISBN: 9781603846929

Philosopher

1632-11-24 – 1677-02-21

Baruch Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher of Sephardic Jewish origin and a major figure in early modern rationalism. His works in metaphysics, ethics, and political philosophy were highly influential in European intellectual history.

Books by Baruch Spinoza

ÉTHICS: Spinoza
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The Essential Baruch Spinoza

How to Improve Your Mind, The Road to Inner Freedom, and The Book of God
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Spinoza: Complete Works
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Quotes by Baruch Spinoza

The formation of society serves not only for defensive purposes, but is also very useful, and, indeed, absolutely necessary, as rendering possible the division of labor. If men did not render mutual assistance to each other, no one would have either the skill or the time to provide for his own sustenance and preservation: for all men are not equally apt for all work, and no one would be capable of preparing all that he individually stood in need of. Strength and time, I repeat, would fail, if every one had in person to plow, to sow, to reap, to grind corn, to cook, to weave, to stitch and perform the other numerous functions required to keep life going; to say nothing of the arts and sciences which are also entirely necessary to the perfection and blessedness of human nature.
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He who has a true idea simultaneously knows that he has a true idea, and cannot doubt of the truth of the thing perceived.
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The object of the idea constituting the human mind is the body
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After experience had taught me that all the usual surroundings of social life are vain and futile; seeing that none of the objects of my fears contained in themselves anything either good or bad, except in so far as the mind is affected by them, I finally resolved to inquire whether there might be some real good having power to communicate itself, which would affect the mind singly, to the exclusion of all else: whether, in fact, there might be anything of which the discovery and attainment would enable me to enjoy continuous, supreme, and unending happiness.
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The order and connection of ideas in the same as the order and connection of things
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I saw that all the things I feared and which feared me had nothing good or bad in them save in so far as the mind was affected by them.
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Those who know the true use of money, and regulate the measure of wealth according to their needs, live contented with few things.
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Most of those who have written about the Affects, and men's way of living, seem to treat, not of natural things, which follow the common laws of nature, but of things that are outside nature. Indeed they seem to conceive man in nature as a dominion within a dominion. For they believe that man disturbs, rather than follows, the order of nature, that he has absolute power over his actions, and that he is determined only by himself.
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I shall treat the nature and power of the Affects, and the power of the Mind over them, by the same Method by which, in the preceding parts, I treated God and the Mind, and I shall consider human actions and appetites just as if it were a Question of lines, planes, and bodies.
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It will be said that, although God's law is inscribed in our hearts, Scripture is nevertheless the Word of God, and it is no more permissible to say of Scripture that it is mutilated and contaminated than to say this of God's Word. In reply, I have to say that such objectors are carrying their piety too far, and are turning religion into superstition; indeed, instead of God's Word they are beginning to worship likenesses and images, that is, paper and ink.
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If Scripture were to describe the downfall of an empire in the style adopted by political historians, the common people would not be stirred.
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Scriptural doctrine contains not abstruse speculation or philosophic reasoning, but very simple matters able to be understood by the most sluggish mind.
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Everyone is by absolute natural right the master of his own thoughts, and thus utter failure will attend any attempt in a commonwealth to force men to speak only as prescribed by the sovereign despite their different and opposing opinions.
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The purpose of the state is really freedom.
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Every person should embrace those [dogmas] that he, being the best judge of himself, feels will do most to strengthen in him love of justice.
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Falsity consists in the privation of knowledge, which inadequate, fragmentary, or confused ideas involve.
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Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it.
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He who, while unacquainted with these writings, nevertheless knows by the natural light that there is a God having the attributes we have recounted, and who also pursues a true way of life, is altogether blessed.
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Don't cry and don't rage. Understand.
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Of all the things that are beyond my power, I value nothing more highly than to be allowed the honor of entering into bonds of friendship with people who sincerely love truth. For, of things beyond our power, I believe there is nothing in the world which we can love with tranquility except such men.
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