We must take care not to admit as true anything, which is only probable. For when one falsity has been let in, infinite others follow. Baruch Spinoza More Quotes by Baruch Spinoza More Quotes From Baruch Spinoza The things which ... are esteemed as the greatest good of all ... can be reduced to these three headings, to wit : Riches, Fame, and Pleasure. With these three the mind is so engrossed that it cannot scarcely think of any other good. Baruch Spinoza three mind thinking I should attempt to treat human vice and folly geometrically... the passions of hatred, anger, envy, and so on, considered in themselves, follow from the necessity and efficacy of nature... I shall, therefore, treat the nature and strength of the emotion in exactly the same manner, as though I were concerned with lines, planes, and solids. Baruch Spinoza envy passion hatred I have resolved to demonstrate by a certain and undoubted course of argument, or to deduce from the very condition of human nature, not what is new and unheard of, but only such things as agree best with practice. Baruch Spinoza argument human-nature practice Things could not have been brought into being by God in any manner or in any order different from that which has in fact obtained. Baruch Spinoza different god order Love is nothing but joy accompanied with the idea of an eternal cause. Baruch Spinoza joy love ideas Yet nature cannot be contravened, but preserves a fixed and immutable order. Baruch Spinoza preserves fixed order I shall consider human actions and desires in exactly the same manner, as though I were concerned with lines, planes and solids. Baruch Spinoza lines action desire As men's habits of mind differ, so that some more readily embrace one form of faith, some another, for what moves one to pray may move another to scoff, I conclude ... that everyone should be free to choose for himself the foundations of his creed, and that faith should be judged only by its fruits. Baruch Spinoza mind men moving Many errors, of a truth, consist merely in the application of the wrong names of things. Baruch Spinoza errors truth knowledge Sin cannot be conceived in a natural state, but only in a civil state, where it is decreed by common consent what is good or bad. Baruch Spinoza sin natural common Many errors, of a truth, consist merely in the application of the wrong names of things. For if a man says that the lines which are drawn from the centre of the circle to the circumference are not equal, he understands by the circle, at all events for the time, something else than mathematicians understand by it. Baruch Spinoza truth men science All the objects pursued by the multitude not only bring no remedy that tends to preserve our being, but even act as hinderances, causing the death not seldom of those who possess them, and always of those who are possessed by them. Baruch Spinoza remedy multitudes objects The greater emotion with which we conceive a loved object to be affected toward us, the greater will be our complacency. Baruch Spinoza complacency emotion life According as each has been educated, so he repents of or glories in his actions. Baruch Spinoza educated glory action It is sure that those are most desirous of honour or glory who cry out loudest of its abuse and the vanity of the world. Baruch Spinoza vanity abuse honor Self-complacency is pleasure accompanied by the idea of oneself as cause. Baruch Spinoza philosophical self ideas One and the same thing can at the same time be good, bad, and indifferent, e.g., music is good to the melancholy, bad to those who mourn, and neither good nor bad to the deaf. Baruch Spinoza realism deaf melancholy If we love something similar to ourselves, we endeavor, as far as we can, to bring it about that it should love us in return. Baruch Spinoza return should life The multitude always strains after rarities and exceptions, and thinks little of the gifts of nature; so that, when prophecy is talked of, ordinary knowledge is not supposed to be included. Nevertheless it has as much right as any other to be called Divine. Baruch Spinoza ordinary littles thinking He who has a true idea, knows at that same time that he has a true idea, nor can he doubt concerning the truth of the thing. Baruch Spinoza words-of-wisdom doubt ideas
