Baruch Spinoza Quotes on Mind
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 mind, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
-
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.”
-
“Do you remember Goethe's wise words about reading Spinoza? — “I always preferred knowing what an author himself said, to knowing what others thought he ought to have said.””
A - F | George Eliot , in her letter to Alexander Main (4 September 1871) [ specific citation needed ] -
“My intellect has been shaped under the sign of Spinoza's words, and it has tried not to be astounded, not to laugh, not to cry, but to understand.”
S - Z | Lev Vygotsky , in his dissertation thesis Psychology of Art [original in Russian] -
“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) -
“"Spinoza did not seek to found a sect, and he founded none"; yet all philosophy after him is permeated with his thought .”
A - F | Will Durant , beginning with a quote of Sir Frederick Pollock in Life and Philosophy of Spinoza (1899)