The endeavor to understand is the first and only basis of virtue.

Quote by Baruch Spinoza

Topics: Baruch Spinoza Quotes

As nature preserves a fixed and immutable order; it must clearly follow that miracles are...

As nature preserves a fixed and immutable order; it must clearly follow that miracles are...

How would it be possible if salvation were ready to our hand, and could without...

How would it be possible if salvation were ready to our hand, and could without...

Self-complacency is pleasure accompanied by the idea of oneself as cause.

Self-complacency is pleasure accompanied by the idea of oneself as cause.

So long as a man imagines that he cannot do this or that, so long...

So long as a man imagines that he cannot do this or that, so long...

Pride is pleasure arising from a man's thinking too highly of himself.

Pride is pleasure arising from a man's thinking too highly of himself.

We feel and know that we are eternal

We feel and know that we are eternal

Desire is the very essence of man

Desire is the very essence of man

He alone is free who lives with free consent under the entire guidance of reason.

He alone is free who lives with free consent under the entire guidance of reason.

Be not astonished at new ideas; for it is well known to you that a...

Be not astonished at new ideas; for it is well known to you that a...

I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of established religion

I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of established religion

Desire is the essence of a man.

Desire is the essence of a man.

Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind,...

Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind,...

Sin cannot be conceived in a natural state, but only in a civil state, where...

Sin cannot be conceived in a natural state, but only in a civil state, where...

Fear cannot be without hope nor hope without fear.

Fear cannot be without hope nor hope without fear.

Happiness is a virtue, not its reward.

Happiness is a virtue, not its reward.

Those who are believed to be most abject and humble are usually most ambitious and...

Those who are believed to be most abject and humble are usually most ambitious and...

Nothing in the universe is contingent, but all things are conditioned to exist and operate...

Nothing in the universe is contingent, but all things are conditioned to exist and operate...

Only that thing is free which exists by the necessities of its own nature, and...

Only that thing is free which exists by the necessities of its own nature, and...

I call him free who is led solely by reason.

I call him free who is led solely by reason.

If men were born free, they would, so long as they remained free, form no...

If men were born free, they would, so long as they remained free, form no...