Benedictus de Spinoza

“ As devotion springs from wonder at a thing which we love, so does Derision spring from contempt of a thing which we hate or fear, and Scorn from contempt of folly, as veneration from wonder at prudence. ”

“ I confess, indeed, that they who think philosophy and theology mutually contradictory and subversive, who maintain that each ought to be expelled from the other's domain, and that one or other is to be bid adieu to, they, I say, do not without good reason endeavour to lay a solid foundation for theology, and even strive to find a mathematical demonstration of its principles. But who, save a desperate and insane person, would rashly choose to bid good-bye to reason, to despise the arts and sciences, and to deny the certainty of rational conclusions? ”

“ But far from its being possible that men should ever be brought only to speak within certain prescribed limits, it has still happened that the more anxiously freedom of speech has been denied the more resolutely have mankind striven against the restraint, — not flatterers and sycophants indeed, and the other impotent spirits of the world, the chief seasoning in whose lives it is to dwell in the shadow of the great, to possess titles and distinctions, to have money in their purse, and a full belly, but those whom a liberal education and integrity of life have made more free. ”

“ I do not wonder, therefore, that nothing by and by was found to remain of the primitive religion but its trappings and outward forms, in which the vulgar seem rather to flatter God than to adore him, and their faith degenerates into mere credulity and prejudice — and what prejudice! such as makes brutes of rational men, opposes obstacles of all kinds to the entertainment of freedom of opinion, and the use of those faculties by which alone truth is to be distinguished from error; obstacles, of which the purpose is, as it seems, entirely to extinguish the light of the understanding in the soul. ”

“ To the rest of mankind I care not to commend my treatise, for I cannot expect that it contains anything to please them: I know how deeply rooted are the prejudices embraced under the name of religion; I am aware that in the mind of the masses superstition is no less deeply rooted than fear; I recognize that their constancy is mere obstinacy, and that they are led to praise or blame by impulse rather than reason. ”

“ When, then, we call that dominion best, where men pass their lives in unity, I understand a human life, defined not by mere circulation of the blood, and other qualities common to all animals, but above all by reason, the true excellence and life of the mind.
But be it remarked that, by the dominion which I have said is established for this end, I intend that which has been established by a free multitude, not that which is acquired over a multitude by right of war. For a free multitude is guided more by hope than fear ”

“ Thus briefly do I present the foundations of democratic authority, of which I desired to treat in particular, both because it seems to me the most natural form of government, and to accord best with the liberty which every individual has by nature. In a democracy no one transfers his natural rights to another in such wise that he shall never be consulted on any matter of public interest, but to the majority of the community whereof he is a member. And for this reason, all in the democratic form of civil polity, as in the natural state, remain equal. ”

“ Human nature, however, will not long submit to any merely arbitrary or absolute control, and as Seneca, the tragedian, says, no one ever exercised violent authority long; moderation alone endures; for so long as men act from fear only, so long do they that which they most dislike, nor do they note the reason, the use, or the necessity of the thing done, — they have no care but to escape the penalties with which they are threatened. Men, indeed, under such a system of arbitrary control cannot but rejoice when misfortune befalls their ruler, even though they themselves should suffer with him ”

“ In short, I am astonished that anyone should wish to subject reason, the greatest of gifts and a light from on high, to the dead letter which may have been corrupted by human malice; that it should be thought no crime to speak with contempt of mind, the true handwriting of God's Word, calling it corrupt, blind, and lost, while it is considered the greatest of crimes to say the same of the letter, which is merely the reflection and image of God's Word. ”

“ A ray of the light that has long illumined the scholars of Germany and the North has at length broken in upon the stagnant theological atmosphere of England, and though it has so dazzled our accredited spiritual chiefs that they now appear disposed to turn their backs upon the brightness, at the risk even of being left behind by the science and common intelligence of the country, they will learn to bear it by and by. For England cannot remain in arrear of the rest of the world in her speculative theology, any more than she dare lag in science and the mechanical arts. ”

“ I cannot therefore sufficiently wonder at the ingenuity of those of whom I have spoken above, who see such deep mysteries in Scripture that no human tongue is competent to explain them; and who have on the strength of this assumption introduced so much philosophical speculation into religion that the Church assumes the aspect of an academy, and religion that of a science, or rather of a controversy. But why should I wonder at seeing the men who boast of having supernatural light unwilling to yield in knowledge to the philosophers who have only their natural understanding for their instructor? ”

“ For why is it more lawful to satiate one's hunger and thirst than to drive away one's melancholy? I reason, and have convinced myself as follows : No deity, nor anyone else, save the envious, takes pleasure in my infirmity and discomfort, nor sets down to my virtue the tears, sobs, fear, and the like, which are signs of infirmity of spirit ; on the contrary, the greater the pleasure wherewith we are affected, the greater the perfection whereto we pass ; in other words, the more must we necessarily partake of the divine nature. ”