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Baruch Spinoza quotes from Ethics

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“Pride, therefore, is pleasure springing from a man thinking too highly of himself.” Baruch Spinoza, Ethics

“God is the indwelling and not the transient cause of all things.” Baruch Spinoza, Ethics

“Human infirmity in moderating and checking the emotions I name bondage: for, when a man is a prey to his emotions, he is not his own master, but lies at the mercy of fortune: so much so, that he is often compelled, while seeing that which is...” Baruch Spinoza, Ethics

“Ambition is the immoderate desire of power.” Baruch Spinoza, Ethics

“Things which are accidentally the causes of hope or fear are called good or evil omens.” Baruch Spinoza, Ethics

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

“None are more readily taken with flattery than the proud, who wish to be first, but are not.” Baruch Spinoza, Ethics

“Hatred which is completely vanquished by love passes into love: and love is thereupon greater than if hatred had not preceded it.” Baruch Spinoza, Ethics

“But all things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.” Baruch Spinoza, Ethics

“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, Ethics

“Whatsoever is, is in God, and without God nothing can be, or be conceived.” Baruch Spinoza, Ethics

“There is no cause from whose nature some effect does not follow.” Baruch Spinoza, Ethics

“For instance, men are mistaken in thinking themselves free; their opinion is made up of consciousness of their own actions, and ignorance of the causes by which they are conditioned.” Baruch Spinoza, Ethics

“The highest endeavour of the mind, and the highest virtue is to understand things by the third kind of knowledge.” Baruch Spinoza, Ethics

“The effort for self-preservation is the first and only foundation of virtue.” Baruch Spinoza, Ethics

“But, notwithstanding, we feel and know that we are eternal.” Baruch Spinoza, Ethics

“there is no hope unmingled with fear, and no fear unmingled with hope.” Baruch Spinoza, Ethics

“Blessedness is not the reward of virtue, but virtue itself; neither do we rejoice therein, because we control our lusts, but, contrariwise, because we rejoice therein, we are able to control our lusts.” Baruch Spinoza, Ethics

“The human mind has an adequate knowledge of the eternal and infinite essence of God.” Baruch Spinoza, Ethics

“For, so long as he conceives that he cannot do it, so long is he not determined to do it, and consequently so long is it impossible for him to do it.” Baruch Spinoza, Ethics

“By God, I mean a being absolutely infinite—that is, a substance consisting in infinite attributes, of which each expresses eternal and infinite essentiality.” Baruch Spinoza, Ethics

Related topics

God virtue love hope self knowledge pride fear freedom evil nature cause conception essence flattery universe power desire emotions pleasure

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Ethics (21)