Baruch Spinoza Quotes
Baruch Spinoza was a 17th-century Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish descent, regarded as one of the leading rationalists of the early modern period. His major work, the Ethics, presents a deductive metaphysical system in which God and Nature are identified as a single infinite substance. The quotes below are attributed to Baruch Spinoza, organized by topic.
Browse Baruch Spinoza by topic
Baruch Spinoza on Death
-
“A free man thinks of death least of all things; and his wisdom is a meditation not of death but of life.”
Ethics(1677)
Baruch Spinoza on Freedom
-
“Daniel Barenboim , " The Purpose of the State is Freedom " (DanielBarenboim.com, December 2003)”
Daniel Barenboim -
“What can be said is that Spinoza is, without question, one of history's most eloquent proponents of a secular, democratic society and the strongest advocate for freedom and toleration in the early modern period.”
Steven Nadler | Steven Nadler , A Book Forged in Hell: Spinoza's Scandalous Treatise and the Birth of the Secular Age (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011)
Baruch Spinoza on God
-
“This I know, that between finite and infinite there is no comparison; so that the difference between God and the greatest and most excellent created thing is no less than the difference between God and the least created thing.”
Letter to Hugo Boxel (October 1674) The Chief Works of Benedict de Spinoza (1891) Tr. R. H. M. Elwes, Vol. 2, Letter 58 (54). -
“If I had as clear an idea of ghosts, as I have of a triangle or a circle, I should not in the least hesitate to affirm that they had been created by God; but as the idea I possess of them is just like the ideas, which my imagination forms of harpies, gryphons, hydras, &c., I cannot consider them as anything but dreams, which differ from God as totally as that which is not differs from that which is.”
Letter to Hugo Boxel (October 1674) The Chief Works of Benedict de Spinoza (1891) Tr. R. H. M. Elwes, Vol. 2, Letter 58 (54).
Baruch Spinoza on Knowledge
-
“Letter 56 (60), to Hugo Boxel (1674)”
When you say that if I deny, that the operations of seeing, hearing, attending, wishing, &c., can be ascribed to God , or that they exist in him in any eminent fashion, you do not know what sort of God mine is ; I suspect that you believe there is no greater perfection than such as can be explained by the aforesaid attributes. I am not astonished ; for I believe that, if a triangle could speak, it -
“This impels me, before going into your reasons, to set forth briefly my opinion on the question, whether the world was made by chance . But I answer, that as it is clear that chance and necessity are two contraries , so is it also clear, that he, who asserts the world to be a necessary effect of the divine nature, must utterly deny that the world has been made by chance; whereas, he who affirms th”
Letter to Hugo Boxel (October 1674) The Chief Works of Benedict de Spinoza (1891) Tr. R. H. M. Elwes, Vol. 2, Letter 58 (54). -
“Beauty, my dear Sir, is not so much a quality of the object beheld, as an effect in him who beholds it. If our sight were longer or shorter, or if our constitution were different, what now appears beautiful to us would seem misshapen, and what we now think misshapen we should regard as beautiful. The most beautiful hand seen through the microscope will appear horrible. Some things are beautiful at”
Letter to Hugo Boxel (October 1674) The Chief Works of Benedict de Spinoza (1891) Tr. R. H. M. Elwes, Vol. 2, Letter 58 (54). -
“If I had as clear an idea of ghosts, as I have of a triangle or a circle, I should not in the least hesitate to affirm that they had been created by God; but as the idea I possess of them is just like the ideas, which my imagination forms of harpies, gryphons, hydras, &c., I cannot consider them as anything but dreams, which differ from God as totally as that which is not differs from that which i”
Letter to Hugo Boxel (October 1674) The Chief Works of Benedict de Spinoza (1891) Tr. R. H. M. Elwes, Vol. 2, Letter 58 (54). -
“I had hoped that out of so many stories you would at least have produced one or two, which could hardly be questioned, and which would clearly show that ghosts or spectres exist. The case you relate... seems to me laughable. In like manner it would be tedious here to examine all the stories of people, who have written on these trifles. To be brief, I cite the instance of Julius Caesar , who, as Su”
Letter to Hugo Boxel (October 1674) The Chief Works of Benedict de Spinoza (1891) Tr. R. H. M. Elwes, Vol. 2, Letter 58 (54). -
“Letter 21 (73) to Henry Oldenburg , November (1675)”
My opinion concerning God differs widely from that which is ordinarily defended by modern Christians. For I hold that God is of all things the cause immanent, as the phrase is, not transient. I say that all things are in God and move in God, thus agreeing with Paul , and, perhaps, with all the ancient philosophers , though the phraseology may be different ; I will even venture to affirm that I agr -
“I will not attempt to describe here the many lessons that I learned in the study of Spinoza, lessons that in several respects laid the foundation of my philosophy.”
George Santayana | George Santayana , in his book Persons and Places (New York: Scribners, 1944)
Baruch Spinoza on Life
-
“The free man thinks of nothing less than of death, and his wisdom is a meditation, not on death, but on life.”
Homo liber de nulla re minus, quam de morte cogitat, et ejus sapientia non mortis, sed vitae meditatio est. -
“If you find the light of Scripture clearer than the light of reason (which also is given us by divine wisdom), you are doubtless right in your own conscience in making your reason yield. For my part, since I plainly confess that I do not understand the Scriptures, though I have spent many years upon them, and since I know that when once I have a firm proof I cannot by any course of thought come to”
Letter to William van Blyenbergh (1665) as quoted by Sir Frederick Pollock , Spinoza: His Life and Philosophy (1880) pp. 50-51 -
“Spinoza helps me to see myself objectively. This makes life bearable even in experiencing suffering; and with the teachings from the Ethics the world is perceived as manageable.”
Daniel Barenboim | Daniel Barenboim , " The Purpose of the State is Freedom " (DanielBarenboim.com, December 2003)
Baruch Spinoza on Love
-
Attributed to Baruch Spinoza:
“Hatred is increased by being reciprocated, and can on the other hand be destroyed by love.”
-
Attributed to Baruch Spinoza:
“He who lives according to the dictates of reason endeavours, as much as possible, to render back love, or kindness, for other men's hatred, anger, and contempt towards him.”
-
“But love for an object eternal and infinite feeds the mind with joy alone, and a joy which is free from all sorrow. This is something greatly to be desired and to be sought with all our strength.”
On the Improvement of the Understanding(1662) | I, 10; translation by W. Hale White (Revised by Amelia Hutchison Stirling) -
“All happiness or unhappiness solely depends upon the quality of the object to which we are attached by love.”
On the Improvement of the Understanding(1662) | I, 9; translation by W. Hale White (Revised by Amelia Hutchison Stirling) -
“I ought to love the Jews, as they seem to be my only friends intellectually, beginning with Edman —not to go back to Spinoza.”
George Santayana | George Santayana , in his letter to Mrs. Nancy Saunders Toy (who was the wife of Crawford Howell Toy ), 12 August 1938 [ specific citation needed ]
Baruch Spinoza on Mind
-
Attributed to Baruch Spinoza:
“There can be no hope without fear, and no fear without hope.”
-
Attributed to Baruch Spinoza:
“Will and intellect are one and the same.”
Baruch Spinoza on Nature
-
Attributed to Baruch Spinoza:
“Nothing exists from whose nature some effect does not follow.”
Baruch Spinoza on Politics
-
Attributed to Baruch Spinoza:
“Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.”
-
“All laws which can be broken without any injury to another, are counted but a laughing-stock, and are so far from bridling the desires and lusts of men, that on the contrary they stimulate them.”
Political Treatise(1677) | Ch. 10, Of Aristocracy, Conclusion Variant translation : Laws which can be broken without any wrong to one's neighbor are but a laughing-stoke ; and, so far from such laws restraining the appetites an
Baruch Spinoza on Truth
-
Attributed to Baruch Spinoza:
“He who would distinguish the true from the false must have an adequate idea of what is true and false.”
Baruch Spinoza on Virtue
-
Attributed to Baruch Spinoza:
“Blessedness is not the reward of virtue, but virtue itself.”
-
“All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.”
Et sane arduum debet esse, quod adeo raro reperitur. Qui enim posset fieri, si salus in promptu esset et sine magno labore reperiri posset, ut ab omnibus fere negligeretur? Sed omnia praeclara tam difficilia, quam rara sunt. -
“Liberally rendered in A Natural History of Peace (1996) by Thomas Gregor as: "Peace is not an absence of war; it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice."”
Political Treatise(1677)