Baruch Spinoza Quotes on God
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 god, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
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“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). -
“[Spinoza] this pure soul, this great realist, the first human being to attempt to become a citizen of the world. . . this down-to-earth passion.”
G - L | Karl Jaspers , to Hannah Arendt , 4 August 1949, letter 91 in Hannah Arendt and Karl Jaspers Correspondence, edited by Lotte Kohler and Hans Saner (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992) -
“As a student, in an hour when he was needing the help of sages, he followed Renan ; Spinoza freed his mind in matters of religion; from afar came the brotherly greeting of Tolstoi .”
S - Z | Stefan Zweig , in his book Romain Rolland : The Man and His Work . Translated from the original manuscript by Eden and Cedar Paul. (New York: Thomas Seltzer, 1921) -
“I believe in Spinoza's God , who reveals himself in the lawful harmony of the world, not in a God who concerns himself with the fate and the doings of mankind.”
A - F | Albert Einstein , in response to the telegrammed question of New York's Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein in (24 April 1929) [ specific citation needed ] ; he later expanded on his comments about Spinoza's a -
“[Spinoza] — A God -intoxicated man. [Original in German: Ein Gottbetrunkener Mensch.]”
M - R | Novalis , as quoted in Novalis (1829) by Thomas Carlyle : "Spinoza is a God-intoxicated man ( Gott-trunkenet Mensch )." -
“Heinrich Heine , On the History of Philosophy and Religion and Other Writings [original in German]”
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“Susan Jacoby , Strange Gods: A Secular History of Conversion (New York: Pantheon Books, 2016)”
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“The piety of philosophers is theory, pure intuition of the divinity, calm and gay in silent solitude. Spinoza is the ideal of the species. The religious state of the poet is more passionate and more communicative.”
S - Z | Friedrich Schlegel , Philosophical Fragments (1798)