None are more taken in by flattery than the proud, who wish to be the first and are not. – Baruch Spinoza
I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of established religion. – Baruch Spinoza
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. – Baruch Spinoza
Only that thing is free which exists by the necessities of its own nature, and is determined in its actions by itself alone. – 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
It may easily come to pass that a vain man may become proud and imagine himself pleasing to all when he is in reality a universal nuisance. – Baruch Spinoza
The greatest pride, or the greatest despondency, is the greatest ignorance of one’s self. – Baruch Spinoza
Whatsoever is contrary to nature is contrary to reason, and whatsoever is contrary to reason is absurd. – Baruch Spinoza
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 Spinoza
All happiness or unhappiness solely depends upon the quality of the object to which we are attached by love. – Baruch Spinoza
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 Spinoza
Those who are believed to be most abject and humble are usually most ambitious and envious. – Baruch Spinoza
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. – Baruch Spinoza
The world would be happier if men had the same capacity to be silent that they have to speak. – 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 striven not to laugh at human actions, not to weep at them, nor to hate them, but to understand them. – Baruch Spinoza
