Baruch Spinoza Quotations | Page 2

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.

Human infirmity in moderating and checking the emotions I name bondage : for, when a man is a prey to his emotions, he is not his own master, but lies at the mercy of fortune : so much so, that he is often compelled, while seeing that which is better for him, to follow that which is worse.

Nothing exists from whose nature some effect does not follow.

All laws which can be broken without any injury to another, are counted but a laughing-stock, and are so far from bridling the desires and lusts of men, that on the contrary they stimulate them.

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

I call him free who is led solely by reason.

I have tried sedulously not to laugh at the acts of man, nor to lament them, nor to detest them, but to understand them.

He who would distinguish the true from the false must have an adequate idea of what is true and false.

Nothing comes to pass in nature, which can be set down to a flaw therein; for nature is always the same and everywhere one and thesame in her efficiency and power of action; that is, nature's laws and ordinances whereby all things come to pass and change from one form to another, are everywhere and always; so that there should be one and the same method of understanding the nature of all things whatsoever, namely, through nature's universal laws and rules.

Everything great is just as difficult to realize as it is rare to find.