You will have complete freedom to philosophize, the prince being convinced that you will not abuse it to disturb the established religion.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
Baruch Spinoza
Baruch Spinoza (24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese Sephardi origin. One of the foremost exponents of 17th-century Rationalism and one of the early and central figures of the Enlightenment, he is considered one of the great rationalists of philosophy.
You will nowhere find [...] a prince more favorable to men of great talent.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
[...] if you come here, be sure that you will lead a happy life worthy of a philosopher [...].
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
[...] a happy life worthy of a philosopher, unless all our predictions and all our hopes are entirely mistaken.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
[...] [a prince] convinced that you will not abuse [your freedom] to disturb the established religion.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
By natural right [...] we understand nothing other than the laws of the nature of each individual, according to which we conceive that each of them is naturally determined to exist and to act in a determined manner.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
The right of nature extends as far as its power extends.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Each individual has the absolute right to preserve himself, that is, to live and to act as he is determined by his nature.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Just as the wise man has the absolute right to do all that reason dictates [...], so also the ignorant and the foolish have the right to do all that appetite counsels them.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
The right of nature [...] forbids them only what none of them desires and what is beyond their power; it does not forbid quarrels, hatred, ruses, anger, nor absolutely anything that appetite counsels.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
All that seems to us, in nature, ridiculous, absurd or evil, comes from the fact that we know things only in part, and that we are mostly ignorant of the order and connections of the whole of nature.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
What reason says is an evil is not an evil in relation to the order and laws of universal nature, but only in relation to the laws of our own nature alone.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
There is no one who does not desire to live in security and sheltered from fear, as much as possible; yet this situation is impossible as long as everyone can do everything as they please.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
It is a universal law of human nature to neglect what one judges to be a good only in the hope of a greater good, or in the fear of a greater evil.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
No pact has value except by reason of its utility; if the utility disappears, the pact vanishes with it and loses all its authority.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
It is therefore madness to claim to bind someone forever to their word, unless one ensures that breaking the pact brings more harm than profit to the violator [...].
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
The foundation and object of this government [democracy] is [...] to check the disorders of appetite and to keep men, as far as possible, within the limits of reason, so that they may live together in peace and concord.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
He is truly a slave who is enslaved by his passions and is incapable of seeing and doing what is useful to him, and only he is free whose soul is sound and who takes no other guide than reason.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Justice is the firm resolution to render to each what is his due according to civil law; injustice consists in taking from someone, under the pretext of right, what is due to him.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
I have preferred to treat of this form of government [democracy], because it seemed to me the most natural and the closest to the liberty which nature gives to all men.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
The knowledge we have acquired of good and evil [...] can lead us to salvation, or to the love of God, in which [...] all our happiness consists.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
If the passions have no other causes than those we have indicated, we need only make good use of our understanding [...] to be sure not to be led astray by them.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
As soon as we have seen the actions of the body and what results from them, we will know the first and principal cause of all passions, and consequently the way to destroy them.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
There is not and there cannot be any being outside of nature, which is infinite.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
Nothing happens within us of which we cannot be conscious.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
No mode of thought can produce rest or motion in the body.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
The mind, which is the idea of the body, is so united with it that it forms with it but one natural whole.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
The production or destruction of love results from an idea [...] when we perceive some good in the beloved object or some evil in the hated object.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
The love for an object is only destroyed by the representation of something better.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
Without God we can neither exist nor be conceived [...] we know him and can know him only through himself, and consequently much better than we know ourselves.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
When we begin to know God [...], we then unite with him more closely than with the body; and only then are we freed from the body.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
The body and its actions [...] cannot bring any modification to the soul, except to present themselves to it as objects.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
It is not the body as a body that produces [passion]; it is the body as an object.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
When [the soul] comes to know the most excellent being, it will then be impossible for any of these passions to make the slightest impression on it.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
It is only the third degree of knowledge, namely true knowledge, that can make us free, and without it, it is impossible for us to become so.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
Without virtue, that is, without a proper direction of the understanding, all is lost; we cannot live in peace with ourselves.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
[It is a] proposition as absurd as if a fish, which cannot live out of water, were to say: If there is no eternal life for me, I want to leave the water to live on land.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
Experience teaches us that in seeking sensuality, pleasure, and worldly things, we find not our salvation, but our ruin.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
True freedom is to be and to remain chained by the bonds of His love.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
Knowledge through reasoning is not the best thing in us, but only a step by which we rise to the desired end [...].
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
The more being a thing has, the more action and the less passion it has.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
It is certain that the agent acts by what it possesses, and the patient suffers by what it lacks.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
No thing, considered in itself, has within it a cause by which it can destroy itself.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
The true understanding cannot perish [...]. As it does not come from external causes, but from God, it cannot [...] undergo any alteration from without.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
All the actions we produce [...] are of a more perfect nature the more capable they are of uniting with us so as to form [...] one and the same nature.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
I define it [human freedom] as a constant act that our intellect acquires through its [...] union with God, to produce within itself ideas and outside itself actions that are in accordance with its nature.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
A thing does not cease to be true for not being accepted by many.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
I beg and implore you to take precautions in the manifestation of these ideas.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
If [...] any difficulty arises in your mind [...], I beg you not to hasten to contradict it, before having applied some time and attention to it.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
The servitude of a thing consists in being subject to an external cause; freedom, on the contrary, in not being subject to it, and in being free from it.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
Cities that are neither able to subsist on their own, nor to inspire fear in others, do not truly belong to themselves; they are under the law of others.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
To seek equality between unequal elements is to seek the absurd.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
Citizens can rightly be judged equal, because the power of each of them, compared to the power of the State, ceases to be significant.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
Cities cannot be held as equal. The right of each, like its power, must be measured by its greatness.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
Each city has within its walls [...] as much right as it can exercise.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
The common laws or rights of the empire should not be changed when they have only recently been established.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
[The powerful], yielding to the natural inclinations of man, will strive to preserve and increase, if possible, their rights.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
Liberty and the public good perish when a small number of men decide everything by their passion alone.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
Men's minds are generally too dull to penetrate to the heart of things at first glance, but they are sharpened by deliberating, listening, and debating.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
While they seek all means to act as they please, [men] find a course of action that has general approval and which no one had previously thought of.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
The sudden overthrow of [a] republic comes not from it wasting time in deliberation, but from the poor organization of its government and the too small number of its rulers.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
Where several [centers of power] enjoy liberty, it is not enough for one who wishes to pave a way to empire to seize just one in order to master the others.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
Wherever a single [entity] holds power, the good of others is cared for only to the extent that this good may be useful to the one that is master.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
All that we clearly and distinctly conceive to belong to the nature of a thing, can be, with truth, affirmed of that thing.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
The essences of things are of all eternity and will remain immutable for all eternity.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
A finite understanding cannot comprehend the infinite.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
A finite understanding, in itself, can know nothing without being determined by an external cause [...].
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
The cause of the idea that man possesses is not his own imagination, but some external cause, which determines him to know this or that.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
No thing by itself seeks its own destruction [...].
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
The infinite cannot change into something better than itself, since it is perfect [...].
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
God [...] the first cause of all things, and even the cause of himself, must make himself known by himself.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
It belongs to the essence of a mountain to have a valley.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
Between the idea and its ideate (that which is represented by the idea) there is a great difference [...].
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
[Certain ideas] are such that [...] I am forced to say that they are and would always be the same, even if neither I, nor any man, had ever thought of them.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
This very thing proves that they [the ideas] were not created by me, and that they must have, outside of me, a subject which is not me [...].
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
I see then that no thing holds from me truth, essence, or existence.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
For [certain things], existence is as necessary as essence, and nothing is without them.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
No substance [...] depends on anything external and is consequently subject to no change.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
Love consists in enjoying a thing and uniting oneself with it.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
Love is born from the representation and knowledge we have of an object; and the greater and more imposing the object shows itself to be, the greater and more imposing is the love within us.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
We can free ourselves from love [...] through the knowledge of something better, or through the experience that teaches us that the beloved object [...] brings us much pain.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
It is necessary not to free ourselves entirely from love, for [...] we could not exist without the enjoyment of some good to which we are united and by which we are strengthened.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
He is certainly to be pitied who unites himself with perishable things, for these things being beyond his power [...], it is impossible that, when they are affected, he himself should remain free.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
If those who love perishable things are miserable [...] what are we to think of those who love honors, power, pleasure, which have no [essence]?
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
Reason teaches us to separate ourselves from these perishable goods, for [...] one sees the vice and poison hidden in the love of these things.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
Those [things] which are in our power are those which we bring about in accordance with the order of nature of which we are a part.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
Those which are not in our power are those which, being outside of us, are not subject to any change by our doing.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
It is impossible, if we make good use of our understanding, for us to neglect to love God.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
If, while loving something, we come to encounter something else that is better, we turn towards the latter and abandon the former.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
When we come to know God, who alone has all perfection in Himself, we must necessarily love Him.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
As God is the first cause of all things, the knowledge of God must logically precede the knowledge of all other things.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
True love is always born from the opinion we have of the goodness and excellence of the object.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
We see then how we must strengthen our love, and how it must rest in God.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
Things have reached a point where men no longer wish to be corrected; and they cling so stubbornly to opinions [...] that reason can no longer assert its rights except among a very small number.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
So much have prejudices extended their empire over the mass of men. [...] but I persist in the attempt, convinced that one must not despair of a successful outcome.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
What can be said of interpreters [...] who see in the text of Scripture only what they please to find there? Is it not as if they were suppressing the Bible to fabricate another of their own making?
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
One must affirm nothing concerning Scripture except what is given by Scripture itself, or what can be legitimately deduced from it.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
The history of Scripture has remained imperfect, and [...] contains errors so serious that it is impossible either to trust it or to remake it.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
This most necessary history, the ancients entirely neglected, or at least the testimonies [...] have perished through the ravages of time, leaving [...] a forever deplorable gap.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
This loss could be repaired [...], if men [...] had known how to transmit the little they had, without altering it with indiscreet additions.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Let us conclude, then, that all the books of which we have just spoken [...] are apocryphal, and that the events recounted therein are told as having happened in a very ancient time.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
All these books conspire to a single end, which is to make known the words and commandments [of a prophet], and to prove their excellence through the account of events.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
[Certain passages] were certainly touched up by the editor [...] with the intention of making the words of [the original author] clearer for the people of his time.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
If we possessed today the very book that Moses wrote, I am convinced that by comparing it to the [current] Scripture, we would find great differences, [...] even in the order and spirit of the precepts.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
I do not believe that any man of good sense can persuade himself that [this book] was written by the judges themselves, [...] the entire work was composed by a single historian.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
The author [...] warns in several places that in the times of which he tells the history, there was no king in Israel; which proves that this book was written at the time when the Hebrews had kings.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
The very order and sequence of the historical narratives indicate [...] the unity of plan and of historian.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
For my part, I will state clearly the substance of my thought and show clearly what the matter is.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
We have [...] shown that these Spirits were but phantoms that existed only in their own imagination.
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
The first teachers of mankind were not enlightened enough to explain to the people what these phantoms were, but they did not fail to tell them what they thought of them.
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
From a ridiculous opinion, they fell into an error no less absurd, when they believed that these Phantoms had unlimited power, a notion devoid of reason.
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
[...] the ignorant [...] imagine that the Beings they do not know have marvelous power.
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
This ridiculous opinion was no sooner divulged than legislators used it to support their authority.
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
They established the belief in Spirits, which they called Religion, hoping that the fear the people would have of these invisible powers would keep them in their duty.
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
[...] the Jews believed, like the Greeks, that the Spirits or Phantoms were not pure chimeras, nor visions, but real beings, independent of the imagination.
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
It is certain that these words Demons, Satan, Devil, are not proper names designating any individual, & that only the ignorant ever believed in them [...].
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
How [...] is it possible to conceive that God preserves a creature, who not only hates him mortally [...] but who also strives to lead his friends astray for the pleasure of mortifying him?
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
What is God's purpose here, or rather, what are we meant to understand when we are told of the Devil & Hell?
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
If God can do everything & nothing can be done without him, whence is it that the Devil hates him [...]? Either God consents to it, or he does not.
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
If he [God] consents to it, the devil, in cursing him, only does what he must, since he can only do what God wills; consequently, it is not the Devil, but God himself who curses himself.
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
If he [God] does not consent to it, it is not true that he is All-Powerful, & consequently there are two principles, one of good & the other of evil [...].
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
A reasonable man sees only emptiness, nothingness, and folly [in these chimeras].
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
[Theologians] are people of bad faith, who abuse the credulity of the people to insinuate to them what they please, as if the common folk were absolutely unworthy of the truth [...].
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
The patricians will always judge as best the rich or those united to them by ties of blood or friendship.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
If patricians were to elect their colleagues [...], without passion and solely for the public interest, no government could be compared to an aristocratic one.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
Practice has shown [...] that in oligarchies, the will of the patricians, for lack of rivals, is more than anywhere else free from all law.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
What patricians have most at heart is to keep the most worthy citizens out of the council and to choose as colleagues people who have no will but their own.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
In such a government, affairs are conducted much more poorly, because the election [...] depends on the completely free will of a few individuals [...] exempt from all law.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
In a democratic government, all those who [...] were born on the very soil of the fatherland, or who have deserved well of the republic [...] have the right to vote [...], and it cannot be refused to them, except for reason of crime or infamy.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
[The ideal democracy is one] where, without exception, all those who obey only the laws of their country, who are moreover their own masters and live honestly, have the right to vote.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
I said [...] 'who live honestly', mainly to exclude all those who through some crime or a shameful life have fallen into infamy.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
If we consult experience, we will see that the exclusion of women is a consequence of their weakness.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
Wherever one finds men and women, women are governed and men govern, and in this way concord exists between the two sexes.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
If it were natural for women to be equal to men [...] both in greatness of soul and in intelligence [...], one would see some [nations] where both sexes would govern equally.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
Intelligence [...] constitutes above all the power of man and therefore his right.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
It cannot happen, without great damage to concord, that men and women govern equally.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
If it were as easy to command the mind as it is to command the tongue, every power would reign in security, and no government would need to resort to violence.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
No one can surrender [...] their natural rights and the faculty within them to reason freely and to judge things freely; no one can be compelled to do so.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
A government that extends its authority over the minds of men is considered violent.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
The ultimate end of the state is not to dominate men, nor to restrain them by fear, [...] but on the contrary to permit each one, as far as possible, to live in security.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
The end of the state is not to turn men from rational beings into beasts or puppets, but to enable them to develop their minds and bodies in security, and to employ their reason unshackled.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
The end of the state, then, is truly freedom.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
It will therefore be a violent government that denies citizens the freedom to express and teach their opinions; on the contrary, it will be a moderate government that grants them this freedom.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
To wish to submit everything to the action of laws is to irritate vice rather than to correct it.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
What cannot be prevented must be permitted, despite the abuses that often follow.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
All the more reason, then, to permit freedom of thought, which is a virtue and cannot be suppressed.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Never [...] will they be prevented from thinking according to their free will. What will follow from this? That men will think one way and speak another.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Men are so constituted [...] that there is nothing they bear with more impatience than to see opinions they consider true be held against them as a crime.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
The less freedom of thought is granted to men, the more one departs from the state most natural to them, and consequently the more violent the government becomes.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
What is more disastrous for a state than to send honest citizens into exile as wicked men, because they do not share the opinions of the crowd and do not know the art of feigning?
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
The scaffold, the terror of the wicked, becomes the glorious stage where tolerance and virtue shine in all their splendor and publicly cover the sovereign majesty with shame!
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
It is not enough to say 'I have seen'; one must show and demonstrate that one has seen. Otherwise, it is no more authentic than hearsay.
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
Such has been the abuse of this title against adversaries, and how the credulity of the half-learned has been imposed upon, who, without examining, are duped at first glance.
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
Books against good morals are sometimes tolerated, but those that attack the very foundation of Religion so strongly never go unpunished.
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
Idiotic compilers with no tincture of criticism have enveloped in the same accusation the first person who offered them the slightest appearance of guilt.
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
[The] doctrine of the immortality of the soul was introduced by all founders of Religion to keep the people in line.
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
I suppose [...] that there are only three Religions [...] if all three are false, it follows that the whole world is deceived.
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
[Men] feed only on opinions and imaginations [...] and remain attached to them, although they could easily shake off the yoke by making the slightest use of their reason.
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
From ignorance of physical causes was born a natural fear [...] which political ends knew how to use according to their interests.
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
All religions are the work of politics.
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
It has been known from time immemorial [...] how profitable this fable of Jesus Christ has been to us.
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
It would be necessary for men to suddenly abandon their imaginations, as they have abandoned ruffs, cannons, and other old fashions.
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
If there are foolishly credulous writers, people devoid of common sense [...] the copies should not be so rare; a single one would suffice to resolve the question.
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
Those who have said that the Gods exist are in such great variety and disagreement [...] that it is certainly not possible that more than one of their opinions be true.
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
All that he says is true concerning the essential dogmas of religion, but he has not said all that is true, and it is in this alone that our religion differs from his.
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
You establish, it seems to me, a fatal necessity for all actions and all things.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
If [fatal necessity] is once granted, all law, all virtue, all religion are cut off at their root.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
If [fatal necessity is] granted, [...] all rewards and all punishments are in vain.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
That which imposes a constraint or a necessity is always a legitimate reason for excuse...
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
[With fatal necessity], it follows from this that not a single man will be inexcusable before God.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
If our actions depend on fate, [...] where is the fault? where are the punishments?
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
Who will untie the knot of this difficulty?
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
In what sense do you take faith in miracles and ignorance to be synonymous and equivalent?
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
Do [miracles] not surpass the power of created nature, and can they be attributed to any power other than that of God?
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
How could there be culpable ignorance in believing that something exceeds the limits of a finite intelligence, bound by certain limits?
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
Is it not fitting for a created [...] intelligence to recognize in an uncreated spirit [...] a force capable of producing things whose reason [...] escapes weak humans?
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
Does not the whole economy of the Gospel rest on the fact that the only Son of God [...] showed himself clothed in human nature, and by his passion and his death paid the ransom for our sins [...]?
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
The right of the State [...] is nothing other than natural right itself, [...] determined by the power of the multitude acting as if with one soul.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
Each citizen has a right only to that which is guaranteed to them by the State.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
Man, [...] in the social order as in the natural order, acts according to the laws of his nature and seeks his own interest.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
It cannot be conceived [...] that each citizen should be legally permitted to live as they please; [...] this natural right by which each individual is their own judge necessarily ceases in the social order.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
What the State declares to be just and good must be considered as so declared by each individual.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
Even if a subject were to deem the decrees of the State unjust, they would nonetheless be bound to execute them.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
Reason imperatively prescribes that we seek peace, which is only possible if the rights of the State are preserved from all harm.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
The more a man is guided by reason, [...] the freer he is, the more constantly he will uphold the rights of the State.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
The most powerful and self-mastered State is the State which is founded upon and directed by reason.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
No one [...] can relinquish the faculty of judgment.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
By what rewards or by what threats will you persuade someone to love what they hate, or to hate what they love?
1677
Source: Political Treatise
The power and the right of the State diminish all the more as the State itself provides a greater number of citizens with reasons to associate in a common grievance.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
Two empires are in relation to one another as two individuals in the state of nature.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
Every State has the full right to break the alliance whenever it wishes. And it cannot be accused of cunning or perfidy [...].
1677
Source: Political Treatise
If a State complains of being deceived, it cannot blame the good faith of the allied State, but its own folly in having entrusted its salvation to a foreign State.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
Factions [...] will be weaker as the number of rulers increases.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
Each person [...], according to the common tendency of human nature, will seek to pave a way towards monarchy.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
Kings are mortal; assemblies, on the contrary, are eternal.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
The will of a single man is highly variable and highly inconstant.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
If there is an absolute government, it is that which is in the hands of the entire multitude.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
The multitude is an object of fear for the rulers, and [...] for this very reason it obtains some freedom, not by an express law, but by a secret and effective claim.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
What determines the will of a sufficiently numerous assembly is not so much passion as reason.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
Passion always pushes men in opposite directions, and only the desire for honest things [...] unites them in a single thought.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
Men [...] are naturally enemies, so that however bound they may be by social institutions, they remain what nature has made them.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
No one defends the interests of another except insofar as he believes he is thereby defending his own interests.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
Peace can never be bought at too high a price.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
The burdens of monarchy derive not so much from its public expenditures as from its secret ones.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
Where the foundations of liberty are sufficiently solid, the [rulers] themselves place their glory in protecting it.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
Academies, founded at the expense of the State, generally aim less to cultivate minds than to restrain them.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
In a free State, the sciences and arts will be perfectly cultivated; for every citizen will be allowed to teach in public, at his own risk and peril.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
Those who do not know how to separate philosophy from theology argue whether Scripture should be subject to reason or reason to Scripture.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
He who subordinates reason and philosophy to theology is led to accept the prejudices of an ancient people as divine things.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
When we have discovered the true meaning [of Scripture], we must necessarily resort to judgment and reason to give our assent to it.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
If reason, despite its objections, must submit [to Scripture], I ask whether this submission will be made in a reasonable or [...] a blind manner.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
For is what thought refuses anything other than what reason rejects?
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
It is thought to be a holy thing to have no confidence in reason and in one's own judgment [...]; but this is not piety, it is madness.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Can religion and faith not be defended, unless men take care to ignore everything and to abdicate reason?
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Theology must not be subject to reason, nor reason to theology, but [...] each is sovereign in its own domain.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Reason has for its share the domain of truth and wisdom, as theology has that of piety and obedience.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
[Reason] is truly the light of the mind, and outside of it there are only dreams and chimeras.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Scripture does not deal with philosophical matters, it teaches only piety, and [...] has been adapted to the understanding and prejudices of the people.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
To regulate life wisely, [it is folly to admit] as true only those propositions which no doubt can reach, [...] as if most of our actions were not very uncertain and full of chance.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
The Holy Spirit itself is nothing other than that perfect peace which is born in the soul as a result of good works.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Where can one find a tutelary altar, after having outraged the majesty of reason?
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Since we cannot, by the sole help of natural light, understand that simple obedience is the way to salvation [...], it follows that Scripture has brought a very great consolation to mortals.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
We will divide all of nature into two parts, nature naturing and nature natured.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
By nature naturing, we understand a being that, by itself [...], can be known clearly and distinctly, such as God is.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
Nature natured, to be well understood, requires a substance.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
Nature natured will be divided into two parts, one general, the other particular.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
The first [part] consists of all the modes that depend immediately on God.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
The second [part] consists in the particular things that are caused by the general modes.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
Every idea, as an idea, involves affirmation or negation.
1661-1675
Source: Ethics (Saisset, 1861)
Those who confuse words with the idea [...] believe they can oppose their will to their thoughts, when they only oppose their thought with purely verbal affirmations [...].
1661-1675
Source: Ethics (Saisset, 1861)
An idea [...] consists neither in the image of a thing, nor in words. For the essence of words and images consists in bodily motions, which in no way involve the concept of thought.
1661-1675
Source: Ethics (Saisset, 1861)
A person is not mistaken in so far as they perceive a certain object, but only in so far as they give or refuse their assent to it.
1661-1675
Source: Ethics (Saisset, 1861)
I deny that we have the free power to suspend our judgment. [...] The suspension of judgment is therefore really an act of perception, and not of free will.
1661-1675
Source: Ethics (Saisset, 1861)
To perceive a winged horse, what is it, in fact, but to affirm that the horse has wings?
1661-1675
Source: Ethics (Saisset, 1861)
It is easy to be mistaken when one confuses universals with particular things, [...] abstract things with realities.
1661-1675
Source: Ethics (Saisset, 1861)
A man placed in absolute equilibrium [...] having no other appetite but hunger and thirst, perceiving only food and drink, equally distant from him [...] will perish of hunger and of thirst.
1661-1675
Source: Ethics (Saisset, 1861)
We act only by the will of God, we participate in the divine nature, and this participation is all the greater as our actions are more perfect [...].
1661-1675
Source: Ethics (Saisset, 1861)
Our highest happiness [...] consists in the knowledge of God alone, which leads us to perform no other actions than those which love and piety advise.
1661-1675
Source: Ethics (Saisset, 1861)
As if virtue [...] were not happiness itself and the highest freedom.
1661-1675
Source: Ethics (Saisset, 1861)
[Our doctrine] teaches us to await and to bear both good and bad fortune with an equal mind; all things [...] follow from the eternal decree of God with an absolute necessity.
1661-1675
Source: Ethics (Saisset, 1861)
[Our doctrine] teaches one to be free from hatred and contempt, to have for no one mockery, envy, or anger.
1661-1675
Source: Ethics (Saisset, 1861)
[Our doctrine] also teaches each person to be content with what they have and to come to the aid of others, not out of vain pity [...], but by the order of reason alone.
1661-1675
Source: Ethics (Saisset, 1861)
The object of government is not to make citizens slaves, but to enable them to freely perform the actions that are best.
1661-1675
Source: Ethics (Saisset, 1861)
There is only one world; but [...] this unique world [...] is expressed in an infinity of ways.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
Each particular thing is expressed in an infinity of ways.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
The modification which constitutes my soul and that which constitutes my body [...] are but one and the same modification.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
God has an infinity of attributes and [...] the order and connection of the modifications of these attributes are the same in each of them.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
The human mind cannot comprehend other attributes of God than extension and thought.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
Why does the soul [...] only perceive the expression of its modification in extension, that is, the human body, and why does it not perceive its expression in other attributes of God?
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
[The modification that is my soul and my body is] expressed in an infinity of ways [...] through a mode of thought, through a mode of extension, [...] and so on to infinity.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
A difficulty [...] will perhaps vanish entirely with new meditations.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
It is not that I do not see the thing very clearly, but it seems to me that one could draw a completely opposite conclusion.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
I have in my soul an idea of God and of nature very different from that which the new Christians are accustomed to defend.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
I believe [...] that God is, as they say, the immanent cause of all things and not the transitive cause.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
We are in God and we move in God.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
Those who think that [...] God and nature are one and the same thing (understanding by nature a certain mass or corporeal matter) [...] are in complete error.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
I am persuaded that it is the wisdom of the doctrine alone which establishes the certainty of divine revelation, and not miracles, which are based only on ignorance.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
I recognize this main difference between religion and superstition, that the latter is founded on ignorance and the former on wisdom.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
It is by miracles alone, that is to say, by ignorance, the source of all malice, that they defend their religion [...].
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
[...] they turn their faith, though it be true, into superstition.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
It is not absolutely necessary for salvation to know Christ according to the flesh.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
[...] it is quite otherwise if one speaks [...] of that eternal Wisdom of God which has manifested itself in all things, and principally in the human soul.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
Without this Wisdom, no one can attain the state of blessedness, since it alone teaches us what is true and false, good and evil.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
As for what certain Churches add, that God took upon Himself human nature, I have expressly warned that I do not know what they mean.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
[...] I will confess that they seem to me to speak a language as absurd as if one were to say that a circle has taken on the nature of a square.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
What makes us inexcusable is that we are in the power of God like clay in the hands of the potter.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
No one can accuse God of having given him an infirm nature or a powerless soul.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
It would be absurd for the circle to complain that God denied it the properties of the sphere [...].
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
Nothing is included in the nature of each thing except what necessarily results from the cause that produces it.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
It is no more in our power to have a vigorous body than to possess a healthy soul.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
If men fall into sin by the necessity of nature, they are therefore always excusable.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
I fully agree that God is in no way angry and that everything happens according to his decrees.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
Men can be excusable and yet be deprived of blessedness and suffer in a thousand ways.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
A horse is excusable for being a horse, and not a man; but that does not prevent it from having to be a horse and not a man.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
The one whom a dog's bite gives rabies is certainly excusable, and yet one has the right to smother him.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
The man who cannot govern his passions [...] cannot, however, enjoy peace of soul or the knowledge and love of God, and it is necessary that he perish.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
The Scripture [...] speaks a human language and adapts itself to the opinions of the common people; for its object is not to teach philosophy [...].
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
It is only the resurrection [of Jesus Christ] that I interpret in an allegorical sense.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
The disciples of Jesus Christ could have been mistaken without the doctrine of the Gospel being altered.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
Paul [...] prides himself on having known Jesus Christ not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
Mockery and jesting arise from a false opinion and reveal an imperfection either in the mocker or in the one who is mocked.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
[Mockery] is based on a false opinion, because it is supposed that the one who is mocked is the first cause of his actions.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
[Mockery and jesting] suppose an imperfection in the mocker.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
One of two things is true: either the thing one mocks deserves mockery, or it does not.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
It is obviously a defect to mock that which is not worthy of mockery.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
If a thing deserves mockery, it is because the mocker recognizes some imperfection in his victim.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
It is not through mockery, but through good advice, that one should seek to correct [an imperfection].
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
Laughter [...] belongs to man, insofar as he notices something good in himself.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
Laughter [...] is a kind of joy.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
I speak of that laughter which comes from a certain idea, and not of that which [...] has no relation to good and evil.
c. 1660
Source: Short Treatise
Whoever [...] indifferently takes everything in Scripture for a universal doctrine [...] must necessarily confuse the opinions of the people with celestial doctrine, [and] take the fictions [...] of men for divine teachings.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
One could not imagine conduct more culpable and more fatal to the State [than to] persecute as enemies of God [...] all those who do not share their opinion, despite their perfect honesty.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
The sole purpose of Scripture is to teach obedience; and this is a truth that no one can doubt.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
The whole law consists only in this one point: our love for our neighbor.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Scripture obliges us to believe nothing other than what is absolutely necessary to carry out this commandment [to love one's neighbor].
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Faith consists in knowing about God that which one cannot ignore without losing all sense of obedience to his decrees.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Faith is not salutary in itself, but only by reason of obedience [...] faith, by itself and without works, is a dead faith.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
He who is truly obedient necessarily has true and salutary faith; for the spirit of obedience necessarily implies the spirit of faith.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
We cannot judge whether a man is faithful or not, except by his works.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Those are truly antichrists who persecute honest people, friends of justice, because they are in disagreement with them.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Faith requires not so much truth in doctrines as piety, that is, that which moves the spirit to obedience.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Dogmas that can give rise to controversy among honest people do not in any way belong to the catholic or universal faith.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Therefore, one should only include in the catholic faith those points strictly necessary to produce obedience to God.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Philosophy has no other aim but truth, while faith [...] has in view only obedience and piety.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
[Faith] condemns as heretics [...] only those who teach opinions capable of leading to rebellion, hatred, disputes, and anger.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Of all the things that are not in my power, there is none sweeter to me than to connect with sincere friends of truth.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
It is as impossible to dissolve such a bond, founded on a common love of truth, as it is not to embrace truth itself as soon as one perceives it.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
Truth alone can establish a solid union amid the diversity of minds and feelings.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
I cannot grant that sin or evil is something positive, much less that anything could exist or happen against the will of God.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
Each being, taken in itself without any relation to other things, contains a perfection that is limited only by its own essence.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
We can conceive of imperfection in things only by comparing them to other things that possess more reality.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
The same things that seem detestable in humans [...] can be viewed in animals with admiration.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
There would be a great imperfection in God if anything happened against His will, if He desired something He could not have.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
God does not know things by abstraction, He does not form general definitions [...]; He does not attribute more reality to things than His intellect [...] has actually given them.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
This privation [evil] exists only for our mind, not for God's.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
The Scripture, intended for the common people and made for them, borrows human language; for the common people do not rise to sublime conceptions.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
Philosophers [...] follow virtue not because it is the law, but out of love and because it is in itself lovable.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
To ask God why he did not give Adam a more perfect will is as absurd as asking why he did not give the circle the properties of a sphere.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
The more perfect a thing is, the more it partakes of the Divinity and the more it expresses its perfections.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
The wicked are but an instrument in the maker's hand, that serves without knowing it [...]; the good, on the contrary, serve God consciously, and [...] thus they grow ever more perfect.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
The apparitions and conferences of Moses & Muhammad, as well as the divine origin of Jesus, are the greatest impostures ever brought to light.
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
God being [...] but nature, or [...] the assemblage of all beings, all properties, and all energies, is necessarily the immanent and non-distinct cause of its effects.
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
[God] cannot be called good, nor wicked, nor just, nor merciful, nor jealous; these are qualities that only suit man.
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
[The idea of God] can neither punish nor reward. This idea of punishments and rewards can only seduce the ignorant.
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
Those who use their judgment, without confusing its operations with those of the imagination, & who have the strength to rid themselves of childhood prejudices, are the only ones who form a clear and distinct idea of it.
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
[The universal Being is] the source of all Beings, which produces them without distinction, [...] man costing no more to produce than the smallest worm or the slightest plant.
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
One must not believe, therefore, that the universal Being [...] values a man more than an ant, a lion more than a stone.
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
In its regard, there is nothing beautiful or ugly, good or bad, perfect or imperfect.
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
[The universal Being] is not concerned with being praised, prayed to, or sought after [...]; it is susceptible to neither love nor hate.
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
All these distinctions are but the inventions of a limited mind; ignorance imagined them & self-interest fosters them.
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
No sensible man can believe in God, nor Hell, nor Spirit, nor Devils, in the way they are commonly spoken of.
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
All these grand words were forged only to dazzle or intimidate the common people.
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
[...] what is called Heaven is nothing other than the continuation of the air that surrounds us, a fluid in which the planets move, without being supported by any solid mass.
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
The word Hell [...] expresses nothing other than a low and hollow place, which the Poets invented to contrast with the dwelling of the celestial inhabitants.
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
All that is said [of Hell] is but the effect of the Poets' imagination & the Priests' deceit; [...] [these discourses] were changed into articles of faith by those who have the greatest interest in upholding this opinion.
17th century
Source: Treatise of the Three Impostors
Every true definition contains nothing more than the simple nature of the thing defined.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
No definition envelops or expresses any multiplicity, any determinate number of individuals [...].
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
The definition of a triangle contains only the simple nature of the triangle; it does not contain a determinate number of triangles.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
Everything that exists necessarily has a positive cause through which it exists.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
Either this cause is comprised in the nature and definition of the thing itself [...], or it is external to it.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
[...] existence belonging to the nature of a thing and being necessarily contained therein [...].
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
If there exists in nature a determinate number of individuals [...], there must be [...] one or more causes capable of producing precisely that number of individuals, no more, no less.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
It is necessary that each [individual] has a cause or reason for its existence.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
The true definition of man does not envelop any determinate number of men.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
The cause of the existence of [several] men [...] must be an external cause.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
All that which is conceived as multiple exists through external causes, instead of being produced by the very force of its own nature.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
By hypothesis, necessary existence belongs to the nature of God.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
The necessary existence of God must be concluded from his [true] definition.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
One cannot conclude from the true definition of God the necessary existence of several gods.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
[...] I have previously established it in another way, by the distinction between essence and existence.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
It is certainly a deplorable thing that the fate of such excellent, such sacred works, could have depended on the decision of such judges.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
It is a certain thing that the book of Esther is the work of the same historian who wrote the book of Daniel, that of Ezra, and undoubtedly also that of Nehemiah [...]. Now that it is established that the four books [...] are by the same author, I will be asked who this author is. I frankly admit that I know nothing about it.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
[Some think that] the entire story of Job is but a parable.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
[If the book of Job were a translation], it would be all the more evident that the gentiles also had holy books.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Neither the substance of this composition [the book of Job] nor the style bears the character of an author overwhelmed by sickness [...]; [they] betray, on the contrary, the work and leisure of the study.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
The Bible does not owe its character as a holy book to the words and discourses it contains, or to the language in which it is written, but to the very things that intelligence discovers in it.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
All books that contain accounts and information of excellent morality, in whatever language they are written, in whatever nation they are found, are equally sacred.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Where does this idolatry of the Scriptures lead? To exposing the authors of the holy books to contempt, and to making them seem incapable of writing a narrative and presenting events with some order.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
They boast of clarifying Scripture; but in fact they obscure it, to such an extent that, if it were permissible to interpret it according to their method, there is no passage whose explanation would not become uncertain.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
They exclaim that it is blasphemous to impute an error to Scripture. What name, then, shall be given to them, who attribute to it all the chimeras of their imagination [...]?
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Ridiculous piety, which, under the pretext of explaining one passage of the Bible by other passages, subordinates the clear places to the obscure ones, the true and sound parts to those that are altered and corrupted!
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Far be it from me [...] the thought of accusing of blasphemy those who explain Scripture in this way; their intentions are pure, and I know that error is the inevitable lot of man.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
I do not believe that any man of sound judgment can persuade himself that the sacred writers deliberately wrote in an obscure and unintelligible style, expressly to appear in contradiction with themselves.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Because a book has corrupted parts, is that a reason to regard all the rest as suspect? Has a book ever been found that was entirely free from faults?
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Before the time of the Maccabees there was no canon of the holy books: it was the Pharisees of the Second Temple period [...] who, on their private authority, chose among many others and consecrated the books we now possess.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
The knowledge of serious things, united with gentleness and polite manners, has in it such attractions that it makes itself beloved by every honest man who has received a liberal education.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
Allow me to join with you in a sincere friendship, and let us cultivate it carefully through common studies and all manner of good offices.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
The little that my weakness can produce is yours. Suffer me to appropriate in turn [...] the so rare gifts of your mind, being able to do so without causing you any harm.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
[...] all these problems at times put my mind to the torture.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
I will use with you the rights of friendship and will most affectionately ask you to explain to me at some length your thoughts [...].
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
What is the true difference you establish between extension and thought?
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
What are the flaws you notice in the philosophy of Descartes and Bacon, and why do you think it can be overthrown and replaced with something better?
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
The more liberally you enlighten me on these questions [...], the more closely you will bind me to you and place me under a strict obligation to return the favor.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
Who could ever [...] strip himself of his power in favor of another [...] to the point of ceasing to be a man?
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Men have never so abdicated their rights [...] that they have ceased to be an object of fear to the very ones to whom they had given their rights and personal power.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
It must be agreed that everyone reserves full power over certain things which, escaping the decisions of the government, depend only on the citizen's own will.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
The power of government consists not only in coercing men by fear, but [...] in the obedience of the subjects, whatever their motives may be.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Obedience concerns not so much the outward act as the inward action of the soul.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
He exercises sovereign rule who reigns over the souls of his subjects.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Although one cannot command the mind as one commands the tongue, yet minds are in some way dependent on the sovereign [...].
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
It is not [...] reason, but passions alone that govern the crowd [...].
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Every man imagines he knows everything, wants to govern everything according to the inspiration of his own mind, and to decide on justice or injustice [...] according to whether it results in profit or loss for him.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
[...] the dangers of the State have always come from within rather than from without, and rulers have had more to fear from their fellow citizens than from enemies.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Often an erroneous belief has played the role of truth.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Nothing is more charming than that joy which has its origin in devotion, which is a mixture of admiration and love.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Nature does not create nations; it creates individuals who are distinguished into different nations only by the diversity of language, laws, and customs.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
If they drove a tyrant from the state, the causes of tyranny nonetheless remained. They only bought a new tyrant at the price of much blood.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
[...] divine or religious right is founded on a pact, without which there is no other right than natural right [...].
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Religion acquires the force of law only by the decree of those who hold the right to command.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
The inner worship of the Divinity and piety in itself belong properly to each individual [...] and cannot be subjected to the will of another.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
The kingdom of God exists where justice and charity have the force of right and are imposed as law.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
For the teachings of true reason [...] to have the force of absolute law, it was necessary for each to surrender his natural right.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Indeed, we see traces of divine justice only where the just command.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
It is beyond doubt that piety towards one's country is the highest degree of piety a man can attain.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
The salvation of the people is the supreme law to which all laws, divine and human, must be related.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
There is no pious act towards a neighbor that does not become impious if it brings about the loss of the State.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
No one can truly practice piety, nor obey God, except by submitting to all the decrees of the sovereign.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
He who holds authority over sacred matters reigns above all over the minds of men.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
To wish to take away [authority over sacred matters] from the sovereign is to wish to bring division into the State.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
What if the clergy (who are men, too) [...] throw themselves into impiety, will they even then remain the interpreters of religion?
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
If those who hold command wish to give free rein to their passions, [...] all things sacred and profane will no less rush to their ruin.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
The divine right, in other words the right relative to sacred matters, depends absolutely on the decrees of the sovereign, and [...] it is for him alone to interpret it and have it respected.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
The power of each thing is determined by its essence alone.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
The essence of the soul [...] is entirely in the idea of the body existing in act.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
The soul's power of thinking does not extend beyond what is contained in the idea of that body, or what can be deduced from it.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
The human soul [...] neither involves nor expresses any of God's attributes other than thought and extension.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
I conclude, therefore, that the human soul can only know the attributes of extension and thought.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
When it comes to a negative proposition, I prefer [proof by contradiction] to a direct proof, as being more analogous to its object.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
All particular beings, except those which are produced by their likes, differ from their causes as much in essence as in existence.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
God is the efficient cause of things, of their essence as well as of their existence.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
[My principle] is founded [...] on the idea we have of the absolutely infinite Being, and not on there being or possibly being beings endowed with three, four, or five attributes.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
The face of the entire universe, which remains always the same, although it changes in an infinity of ways.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
If you have any remaining scruple, I beg you not to hesitate to share it with me, so that I may try, as far as is in my power, to dispel it.
1661-1676
Source: Letters (Spinoza)
In a free State, everyone has the right to think what they want and to say what they think.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
The sovereign, in a State, is the interpreter of the law, because his authority alone defends it, and his testimony alone establishes it.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
A giant's height, for example, is a rare thing, but entirely human. [...] there is nothing in it that surpasses man.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
We doubt the existence of God, and consequently of all things, as long as we have only a confused idea of God, instead of a clear and distinct one.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Whoever conceives the divine nature only in a confused way does not see that to exist belongs to the nature of God.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
All our adequate ideas are true.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
By conceivable things, I do not mean only those which are rigorously demonstrated, but also those which our mind can embrace with moral certainty [...].
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
In whatever social state man may find himself, he can be free. Man is free, in fact, insofar as he acts according to reason.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Reason [...] counsels man to peace, and peace is possible only through obedience to the common law.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
The more a man governs himself according to reason, that is to say the freer he is, the more faithful he is to the common law.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
The love of God, indeed, is not obedience; it is a virtue necessarily possessed by every man who knows God.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Obedience relates to the will of the one who commands, and not to the necessity and truth of things.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Reason therefore teaches us to love God, it cannot teach us to obey him; [...] [it] is incapable of making us conceive of God as a prince who establishes laws.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
In the state of nature, where everyone is their own judge [...] it is inconceivable that cunning could be considered culpable.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
There was no canon of the holy books before the time of the Maccabees.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
The prophets did not always speak by revelation, and this even happened very rarely [...].
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Prophecies contain only pure dogmas and decrees, because God is represented as [...] not reasoning, but imposing orders [...].
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
The authority of the prophet must not [...] be open to discussion; for whoever wishes to confirm his dogmas by reason thereby submits them to the free judgment of each individual.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
I speak to you as to wise people; judge for yourselves the truth of what I tell you.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
The more accurately the prophets reason, the more their knowledge of revealed things approaches natural knowledge.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Although the things contained in the Bible far exceed our understanding, we can nevertheless discuss them in complete safety, provided we admit no principle not drawn from Scripture itself.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
He who has the authority to teach also has that of choosing the most suitable means for this purpose.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
The apostles agree on religion itself, but they are far from agreeing on its foundations.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
Paul [...] teaches that no one can glory in their works, but in faith alone [...]. James, on the contrary, says [...] that man is justified by his works and not by faith alone.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
It is by having built religion on diverse foundations that the apostles gave rise to the numerous discords and schisms which, since their time, have ceaselessly torn the Church apart [...].
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
[...] until at last religion is one day freed from philosophical speculations, and brought back to that small number of very simple dogmas that Christ taught his disciples.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
To avoid offending their ears with the novelty of his doctrines, [the apostles] adapted this teaching, as much as possible, to the spirit of the time.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
There is no apostle who philosophized more than Paul, who was especially called to preach to the gentiles.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
[The other apostles] who preached to the Hebrews, that is, a people contemptuous of philosophy, also adapted to their spirit [...] and taught religion free from philosophical speculations.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
And certainly our age would be very happy, if it were also free from all superstition.
1670
Source: Theological-Political Treatise
[The composition of a Political Treatise is a] design which I deem more useful.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
[A political treatise deals with] natural right.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
[A political treatise deals with] the right of sovereign powers.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
[A political treatise deals with] the affairs that depend on the government of the sovereign powers.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
[A subject of study is] the supreme ideal that any society can set for itself.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
[One must analyze] the organization that must be given to a monarchical government so that it does not degenerate into tyranny.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
[One must] demonstrate point by point in a methodical order all the principles of organization.
1677
Source: Political Treatise
[After monarchy, one must move on] to aristocratic and popular government, to finally arrive at the detail of the laws.
1677
Source: Political Treatise