95+ Baruch Spinoza Quotes From The Dutch Enlightenment Philosopher

Baruch Spinoza was a 17th-century Jewish-Dutch philosopher.

He developed a novel way to think about the relationship between God, nature, and ethics. He also suggested that they are all interconnected in a single animating force.

Spinoza is thought to be one the most important Dutch philosopher to have lived. He grew up in Amsterdam in a Sephardic Jewish family.

He is most popularly know for 'Ethics', his work in which he discusses how humans find happiness only through a rational understanding of this system and their place within it. Spinoza's 'Ethics' consists of five books.

The first book deals with God and the meaning of substance. Mind and knowledge are discussed in the second book. In the three final books, Baruch Spinoza writes about human enslavement to the emotions and passion, as well as how humans can use intellect to achieve freedom.

These topics were usually typical of ethical discussions. Although on account of this and the many other provocative positions he advocates, Spinoza has remained an enormously controversial figure amongst other philosophers.

For more philosophy quotes, visit Locke quotes and Kant quotes.

Best Baruch Spinoza Quotes

Here are quotes spoken or written by Baruch Spinoza himself. Listed here are the best Baruch Spinoza quotes and some Spinoza 'Ethics' quotes.

1. "In practical life we are compelled to follow what is most probable; in speculative thought we are compelled to follow truth."

-Baruch Spinoza, 'The Letters'.

2. "There can be no hope without fear, and no fear without hope."

-Baruch Spinoza.

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

-Baruch Spinoza, 'Ethics'.

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

-Baruch de Spinoza, 'Spinoza in der europäischen Geistesgeschichte'.

5. "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."

-Baruch Spinoza.

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

-Benedict de Spinoza.

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

-Baruch Spinoza.

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

-Spinoza.

9. "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."

-Baruch Spinoza.

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

-Baruch Spinoza.

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

-Baruch Spinoza.

12. "Sin cannot be conceived in a natural state, but only in a civil state, where it is decreed by common consent what is good or bad."

-Baruch Spinoza.

13. "So long as a man imagines that he cannot do this or that, so long as he is determined not to do it; and consequently so long as it is impossible to him that he should do it."

-Baruch Spinoza.

14. "The greatest pride, or the greatest despondency, is the greatest ignorance of one's self."

-Baruch Spinoza.

15. "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."

-Baruch Spinoza.

16. "Sin cannot be conceived in a natural state, but only in a civil state, where it is decreed by common consent what is good or bad"

-Baruch Spinoza.

17. "If men were born free, they would, so long as they remained free, form no conception of good and evil."

-Baruch Spinoza.

18. "For peace is not mere absence of war, but is a virtue that springs from, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice."

-Baruch Spinoza.

19. "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.

20. "Men govern nothing with more difficulty than their tongues, and can moderate their desires more than their words."

-Baruch Spinoza.

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

-Baruch Spinoza.

22. "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.

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

-Baruch Spinoza.

24. "How would it be possible if salvation were ready to our hand, and could without great labor be found, that it should be by almost all men neglected? But all things excellent are as difficult as they are rare."

-Baruch Spinoza.

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

-Baruch Spinoza.

26. "The highest endeavor of the mind, and the highest virtue, is to understand things by intuition."

-Baruch Spinoza.

27. "Indeed, just as light makes manifest both itself and darkness, so truth is the standard both of itself and falsity."

-Baruch Spinoza.

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

-Baruch Spinoza.

29. "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.

30. "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.

31. "Emotional distress and unhappiness have their origin mostly in excessive love toward a thing subject to considerable instability."

-Baruch Spinoza.

32. "People are quite incapable of distracting their minds from thinking of any other goods besides riches, honor, and sensual pleasure."

-Baruch Spinoza.

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

-Baruch Spinoza.

Short Baruch Spinoza Quotes

Spinoza had many important viewpoints to express. In this list, we have included some short, punchy, and poignant quotes for you to ponder over.

34. "All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare."

-Baruch Spinoza.

35. "I call him free who is led solely by reason."

-Baruch Spinoza.

36. "Ambition is the immoderate desire for power."

-Baruch Spinoza.

37. "Fear cannot be without hope nor hope without fear."

-Baruch Spinoza.

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

-Baruch Spinoza.

39. "Superstition is founded on ignorance."

-Baruch Spinoza.

40. "God is the indwelling and not the transient cause of all things."

-Baruch Spinoza.

41. "I do not presume that I have found the best philosophy, I know that I understand the true philosophy."

-Baruch Spinoza.

42. "Everyone has as much right as he has might."

-Baruch Spinoza.

43. "Let unswerving integrity be your watchword."

-Baruch Spinoza.

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

-Baruch Spinoza.

45. "The proper study of a wise man is not how to die but how to live."

-Baruch Spinoza.

46. "Reality and perfection are synonymous."

-Baruch Spinoza.

47. "Big fish eat small fish with as much right as they have power."

-Baruch Spinoza.

48. "Freedom is self-determination."

-Baruch Spinoza.

49. "None are more taken in by flattery than the proud, who wish to be the first and are not."

-Baruch Spinoza.

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

-Baruch Spinoza.

51. "If facts conflict with a theory, either the theory must be changed or the facts."

-Baruch Spinoza.

52. "If you want the present to be different from the past, study the past."

-Baruch Spinoza.

53. "Desire nothing for yourself, which you do not desire for others."

-Baruch Spinoza.

54. "All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare."

-Baruch Spinoza.

55. "Minds, however, are conquered not by arms, but by love and nobility."

-Baruch Spinoza.

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

-Baruch Spinoza.

57. "Freedom is absolutely necessary for the progress in science and the liberal arts"

-Baruch Spinoza.

Baruch Spinoza Quotes On Love And Freedom

Spinoza is not only known for his work, 'Ethics', but he's also known as a philosopher who lived and wrote to give hope for love too. So here are some inspiring Baruch Spinoza quotes on love.

58. "Things are not more or less perfect, according as they delight or offend human senses, or according as they are serviceable or repugnant to mankind."

-Baruch Spinoza.

59. "Love is nothing but Joy with the accompanying idea of an external cause."

-Baruch Spinoza, 'Ethics', part III, proposition 13, scholium.

60. "If we conceive that anyone loves, desires, or hates anything which we ourselves love, desire, or hate, we shall thereupon regard the thing in question with more steadfast love, etc."

-Baruch Spinoza.

61. "From what has been said we can clearly understand the nature of Love and Hate. Love is nothing else but pleasure accompanied by the idea of an external cause: Hate is nothing else but pain accompanied by the idea of an external cause."

-Baruch Spinoza.

62. "We further see, that he who loves necessarily endeavors to have, and to keep present to him, the object of his love; while he who hates endeavors to remove and destroy the object of his hatred."

-Baruch Spinoza.

63. "Hatred is increased by being reciprocated, and can on the other hand be destroyed by love."

-Baruch Spinoza.

64. "People’s hearts are conquered not by arms but by love and nobility."

-Baruch Spinoza.

65. "Everyone endeavors as much as possible to make others love what he loves, and to hate what he hates… This effort to make everyone approve what we love or hate is in truth ambition, and so we see that each person by nature desires that other persons should live according to his way of thinking."

-Baruch Spinoza.

66. "Will and intellect are one and the same thing."

-Baruch Spinoza 'The Ethics', Part I, 1677.

67. "Philosophy has no end in view, save truth. Faith looks for nothing but obedience and piety."

-Baruch Spinoza (Theological-Political Treatise, 1670).

68. "In the Mind there is no absolute, or free, will, but the Mind is determined to will this or that by a cause which is also determined by another, and this again by another, and so to infinity."

-Baruch Spinoza (The Ethics, 1677).

69. "The true aim of government is liberty."

-Baruch Spinoza (Theological-Political Treatise, 1670).

70. "I make this chief distinction between religion and superstition, that the latter is founded on ignorance, the former on knowledge."

-Baruch Spinoza (Letter to Henry Oldenburg, 1675).

71. "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 (On the Improvement of the Understanding, 1662).

72. "Sin cannot be conceived in a natural state, but only in a civil state, where it is decreed by common consent what is good or bad.

-Baruch Spinoza (The Ethics, 1677).

73. "An entire people will never transfer its rights to a few people or to one person if they can reach agreement among themselves."

-Baruch Spinoza.

74. "A society will be more secure, stable & less exposed to fortune, which is founded & governed mainly by people of wisdom and vigilance."

-Baruch Spinoza.

75. "The ultimate aim of government is not to rule, or restrain by fear, nor to exact obedience, but to free every man from fear that he may live in all possible security. In fact the true aim of government is liberty."

-Baruch Spinoza.

76. "In isolation no one has the strength to defend themselves and acquire the necessities of life."

-Baruch Spinoza.

77. "Emotional distress and unhappiness have their origin mostly in excessive love toward a thing subject to considerable instability."

-Baruch Spinoza.

78. "Everywhere truth becomes a casualty through hostility or servility when despotic power is in the hands of one or few."

-Baruch Spinoza.

Baruch Spinoza Quotes On God

Spinoza was a philosopher of reason. Here are Baruch Spinoza quotes on god and understanding god. These Baruch Spinoza quotes will make you think.

79. "God does not exist for an end, and so God does not act for an end."

-Baruch Spinoza.

80. "Most people parade their own ideas as God’s Word, mainly to compel others to think like them under religious pretexts."

-Baruch Spinoza.

81. "The mind of God is all the mentality that is scattered over space and time, the diffused consciousness that animates the world."

-Baruch Spinoza.

82. "God is the efficient cause not only of the existence of things, but also of their essence. Corr. Individual things are nothing but modifications of the attributes of God, or modes by which the attributes of God are expressed in a fixed and definite manner."

-Baruch Spinoza.

83. "God and all attributes of God are eternal."

-Baruch Spinoza.

84. "Things could not have been brought into being by God in any manner or in any order different from that which has in fact obtained."

-Baruch Spinoza.

85. "Knowledge of God is the mind’s greatest good: its greatest virtue is to know God."

-Baruch Spinoza.

86. "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.

87. "Whatsoever is, is in God, and without God nothing can be, or be conceived."

-Baruch Spinoza.

88. "He who loves God cannot endeavor that God should love him in return."

-Baruch Spinoza.

89. "I believe that a triangle, if it could speak, would say that God is eminently triangular, and a circle that the divine nature is eminently circular; and thus would every one ascribe his own attributes to God."

-Baruch Spinoza.

90. "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.

91. "God is not He who is, but That which is."

-Baruch Spinoza.

92. "Don’t look for me outside, you won’t find me. Find me inside… there I’m beating in you."

-Baruch De Spinoza.

93. "Stop believing in me; believe is to assume, guess, imagine. I don’t want you to believe in me, I want you to feel in you when you kiss your beloved, when you throw your little girl, when you love your dog, when you bathe in the sea."

-Baruch Spinoza.

94. "The more we understand particular things, the more do we understand God.

-Baruch Spinoza (The Ethics, 1677).

Baruch Spinoza Quotes On Death

You have seen Spinoza philosophies on men, hope, life, peace, work, happiness, ignorance, and a lot more, but there's no limit to what a philosopher can have viewpoints on. So here are Baruch Spinoza quotes about death.

95. "A free man thinks of death least Odom is a meditation not of death but of life."

-Baruch Spinoza, Ethics.

96. "Healthy people take pleasure in food and thus enjoy a better life than those who eat to merely avoid death."

-Baruch Spinoza.

97. "Every man, by the laws of his nature, necessarily desires or shrinks from that which he deems to be good or bad."

-Baruch Spinoza.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Baruch Spinoza quotes then why not take a look at [René Descartes quotes], or ethics quotes.