43 Famous Baruch Spinoza Quotes (PHILOSOPHY)

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Top 10 Most Famous Baruch Spinoza Quotes (BEST)

“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

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

Nothing in nature is by chance... Something appears to be chance only because of our lack of knowledge. — Nothing in **nature** is by **chance**… Something appears to be chance only because of our lack of **knowledge**.

If you want the present to be different from the past, study the past. — If you want the present to be different from the past, **study** the past.

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

The most tyrannical of governments are those which make crimes of opinions, for everyone has an inalienable right to his thoughts.

All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.

I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of the peace. — I do not know how to teach **philosophy** without becoming a disturber of the **peace**.

There can be no hope without fear, and no fear without hope. — There can be no **hope** without **fear**, and no fear without hope.

When a man is prey to his emotions, he is not his own master.

3 Baruch Spinoza Quotes on Happiness

“Happiness is not the reward of virtue, but is virtue itself; nor do we delight in happiness because we restrain from our lusts; but on the contrary, because we delight in it, therefore we are able to restrain them.”
Baruch Spinoza

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

All happiness or unhappiness solely depends upon the quality of the object to which we are attached by love. — All **happiness** or unhappiness solely depends upon the quality of the object to which we are attached by love.

10 Baruch Spinoza Quotes that will Make You Think (WISDOM)

“The holy word of God is on everyone’s lips… but… we see almost everyone presenting their own versions of God’s word, with the sole purpose of using religion as a pretext for making others think as they do.”
Baruch Spinoza

Peace is not the absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition of benevolence, confidence, justice. — **Peace** is not the absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition of benevolence, confidence, justice.

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

No matter how thin you slice it, there will always be two sides.

What Paul says about Peter tells us more about Paul than about Peter.

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.

He who seeks equality between unequals seeks an absurdity.

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

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.

In so far as the mind sees things in their eternal aspect, it participates in eternity.

7 Wise Baruch Spinoza Quotes to Live By

Do not weep; do not wax indignant. Understand.

The more clearly you understand yourself and your emotions, the more you become a lover of what is.

The endeavor to understand is the first and only basis of virtue.

The highest endeavor of the mind, and the highest virtue, it to understand things by intuition.

Reason cannot defeat emotion, an emotion can only be displaced or overcome by a stronger emotion.

Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it.

No to laugh, not to lament, not to detest, but to understand.

4 Baruch Spinoza Quotes on Freedom

He alone is free who lives with free consent under the entire guidance of reason.

Men believe themselves to be free, simply because they are conscious of their actions, and unconscious of the causes whereby those actions are determined. — Men believe themselves to be free, simply because they are conscious of their **actions**, and unconscious of the causes whereby those actions are determined.

A free man thinks of nothing less than of death, and his wisdom is a meditation, not on death, but on life. — A free man thinks of nothing less than of death, and his **wisdom** is a **meditation**, not on death, but on **life**.

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

3 Baruch Spinoza Quotes on Nature

“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