Blessedness is not the reward of virtue, but virtue itself.
~ Baruch Spinoza
I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of established religion.
In so far as the mind sees things in their eternal aspect, it participates in eternity.
self-preservation is the primary and only foundation of virtue.
Faith is nothing but obedience and piety.
There is no hope unmingled with fear and no fear unmingled with hope.
Do not weep do not wax indignant. Understand.
There is no hope unmingled with fear, and no fear unmingled with hope.
Fear cannot be without hope nor hope without fear.
Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.
For peace is not mere absence of war, but is a virtue that springs from, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.
I would warn you that I do not attribute to nature either beauty or deformity, order or confusion. Only in relation to our imagination can things be called beautiful or ugly, well-ordered or confused.
Only that thing is free which exists by the necessities of its own nature, and is determined in its actions by itself alone.
Freedom is absolutely necessary for the progress in science and the liberal arts.
Peace is not the absence of war, but a virtue based on strength of character.
All happiness or unhappiness solely depends upon the quality of the object to which we are attached by love.
Happiness is a virtue, not its reward.
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.
Ambition is the immoderate desire for power.
God is the indwelling and not the transient cause of all things.
Whatsoever is, is in God, and without God nothing can be, or be conceived.
Those who are believed to be most abject and humble are usually most ambitious and envious.
It may easily come to pass that a vain man may become proud and imagine himself pleasing to all when he is in reality a universal nuisance.
The world would be happier if men had the same capacity to be silent that they have to speak.
He alone is free who lives with free consent under the entire guidance of reason.
