Baruch Spinoza Quotes on Freedom
Baruch Spinoza was a 17th-century Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish descent, regarded as one of the leading rationalists of the early modern period. This page collects quotes attributed to Baruch Spinoza on the topic of freedom, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
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“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. -
“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) -
“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)