"Speculation, like nature, abhors a vacuum."
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Quote collection
Baruch Spinoza quotes (page 4 of 12)
223 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"He alone is free who lives with free consent under the entire guidance of reason."
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"The greatest pride, or the greatest despondency, is the greatest ignorance of one's self."
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"In practical life we are compelled to follow what is most probable ; in speculative thought we are compelled to follow truth."
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"Statesman are suspected of plotting against mankind, rather than consulting their interests, and are esteemed more crafty than learned."
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"Nothing in the universe is contingent, but all things are conditioned to exist and operate in a particular manner by the necessity of the divine nature."
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"Pride is pleasure arising from a man's thinking too highly of himself."
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"Big fish eat small fish with as much right as they have power."
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"The endeavor to understand is the first and only basis of virtue."
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"Minds are not conquered by force, but by love and high-mindedness."
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". . . to know the order of nature, and regard the universe as orderly is the highest function of the mind."
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"To comprehend an idea, a person must simultaneously accept it as true. Conscious analysis - which, depending on the idea, may occur almost immediately or with considerable effort - allows the mind to reject what it intially accepted as fact."
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"He, who knows how to distinguish between true and false, must have an adequate idea of true and false."
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"To give aid to every poor man is far beyond the reach and power of every man. Care of the poor is incumbent on society as a whole."
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"Faith is nothing but obedience and piety."
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"The mind has greater power over the emotions, and is less subject thereto, insofar as it understands all things to be necessary."
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"He who seeks to regulate everything by law is more likely to arouse vices than to reform them. It is best to grant what cannot be abolished, even though it be in itself harmful. How many evils spring from luxury, envy, avarice, drunkenness and the like, yet these are tolerated because they cannot be prevented by legal enactments."
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"Happiness is not the reward of virtue, but is virtue itself; nor do we delight in happiness because we restrain from our lusts; but on the contrary, because we delight in it, therefore we are able to restrain them."
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"True virtue is life under the direction of reason."
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"It is usually the case with most men that their nature is so constituted that they pity those who fare badly and envy those who fare well."
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