Baruch Spinoza
Rationalist philosophy
Sayings by Baruch Spinoza
The more we understand particular things, the more we understand God.
Emotion, which is a passion, ceases to be a passion as soon as we form a clear and distinct idea of it.
The greatest good is the knowledge of the union which the mind has with the whole of nature.
The human mind, in so far as it perceives things truly, is part of the infinite intellect of God.
Desire is the very essence of man.
He who lives under the guidance of reason endeavours, as much as he can, to repay his fellow's hatred, anger, contempt, etc., with love and nobleness.
The more knowledge we have of things, the more complete and perfect is our knowledge of God.
It is impossible for a man to be affected by any emotion unless he imagines something which excludes the existence of an external cause of that emotion.
The greatest pride and baseness are the most frequent causes of disputes.
The mind, the more it understands, the more it loves.
Nothing comes into being out of nothing.
The human mind has no free will, but is determined to will this or that by a cause which is also determined by another cause, and this again by another, and so on to infinity.
The desire of knowing is the proper and most important property of the human mind.
The intellectual love of God is eternal.
The human mind cannot be absolutely destroyed with the body, but something of it remains which is eternal.
Blessedness is not the reward of virtue, but virtue itself.
The more a thing has perfection, the more it acts, and the less it suffers.
No one can desire to preserve his being without desiring to enjoy life.
The highest virtue of the mind is to know God.
All things are determined by the necessity of the divine nature to exist and act in a certain way.