Baruch Spinoza Quotes on Life
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 life, 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. -
“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. -
“Letter to William van Blyenbergh (1665) as quoted by Sir Frederick Pollock , Spinoza: His Life and Philosophy (1880) pp. 50-51”
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 -
“A free man thinks of death least of all things; and his wisdom is a meditation not of death but of life.”
Ethics(1677) -
“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) -
“Jason M. Wirth , The Conspiracy of Life: Meditations on Schelling and His Time (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2003)”
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