42 Quotes About Spinoza
- Author Roger Scruton
-
Quote
Spinoza wrote the last indisputable Latin masterpiece, and one in which the refined conceptions of medieval philosophy are finally turned against themselves and destroyed entirely. He chose a single word from that language for his device: caute – ‘be cautious’ – inscribed beneath a rose, the symbol of secrecy. For, having chosen to write in a language that was so widely intelligible, he was compelled to hide what he had written.
- Tags
- Share
- Author Baruch Spinoza
-
Quote
No creo que cuestionar las cosas sea una enfermedad. La obediencia ciega sin cuestionamientos, es la enfermedad.
- Tags
- Share
- Author Fernando Savater
-
Quote
El sabio —es decir, el hombre libre que sabe lo que de veras necesita— siempre preferirá vivir en la ciudad entre sus semejantes que solitario en la selva o en lo alto de un monte, sin más compañía que algún oso.
- Tags
- Share
- Author Roger Scruton
-
Quote
To the mass of mankind, therefore, the philosopher may appear as a spiritual saboteur, a subverter of things lawfully established, and an apologist for the devil. So Spinoza appeared to his contemporaries, and for many years after his death he was regarded as the greatest heretic of the 17th century.
- Tags
- Share
- Author Baruch Spinoza
-
Quote
The greatest good is the knowledge of the union which the mind has with the whole nature.
- Tags
- Share
- Author Roger Scruton
-
Quote
The picture of a universe of infinitely many wholly unrelated substances is at least as hard to understand as the monism of Spinoza, and far less easy to reconcile with appearances.
- Tags
- Share
- Author Will Durant
-
Quote
Read the book not all at once, but in small portions at many sittings. And having finished it, consider that you have but begun to understand it. Read then some commentary, like Pollock's "Spinoza", or Martineau's "Study of Spinoza", or better, both. Finally, read the "Ethics" again; it will be a new book to you. When you have finished it a second time you will remain forever a lover of philosophy.
- Tags
- Share
- Author Will Durant
-
Quote
Our individual separateness is in a sense illusory; we are parts of the great stream of law and cause, parts of God; we are the flitting forms of a being greater than ourselves, and endless while we die. Our bodies are cells in the body of the race, our race is an incident in the drama of life; our minds are the fitful flashes of eternal light.
- Tags
- Share
- Author Roger Scruton
-
Quote
The seclusion of Spinoza’s life was necessitated by intense labour and intellectual discipline, and his frugality expressed independence of spirit rather than meanness or self-concern. The strength of Spinoza’s social feelings, and his Aristotelian emphasis on friendship as a necessary human good, are abundantly shown in the Ethics.
- Tags
- Share