The 64 best phrases of Baruch Spinoza
Baruch Spinoza was one of the great philosophers of modernity. His thought had a great influence on Western thought and, more specifically, on the way in which his contemporaries began to interpret reality. Reviewing the most famous phrases of Baruch Spinoza is constantly encountering great reflections on the most varied topics.
- Related article: "123 wise phrases to reflect on life"
The most famous phrases of Baruch Spinoza
Below you can find a selection of phrases by Baruch Spinoza to better understand how this reference of philosophy thought.
1. If, according to what the apostle says in 2 Corinthians, 3.3, they have in themselves the letter of God, not written in ink, but with the spirit of God, and not on tables of stone, but on the tables of flesh of the heart, that they stop worshiping the letter and worrying so much for her.
A criticism of the lack of coherence of many Christian groups.
2. Our method of interpreting the writing is the best. Because, as the maximum authority to interpret writing is in the power of each one, the norm of interpretation does not it must be nothing more than natural light, common to all, and not a light superior to nature or any external authority.
The philosopher emphasized what all people have in common when interpreting the ambiguous.
3. The great secret of the monarchical regime and its maximum interest consists in keeping men deceived and in disguising, under the specious name of religion, the fear with which they are loved control, so that they fight for their slavery, as if it were his salvation, and consider not an ignominy, but the highest honor, give their blood and their soul for the pride of a single man.
A reflection on the monarchy in the form of a harsh criticism.
4. The natural right of each man is not determined, then, by sound reason, but by desire and power.
What we want defines us more than the logic we use to achieve it.
5. If it were as easy to rule over souls (animus) as over languages, the whole world would reign safely and no State would be violent, since everyone would live according to the opinion of those who rule and only according to their decision would they judge what is true or false, good or bad, equitable or iniquitous.
A phrase by Baruch Spinoza that talks about his ontology.
6. If no one can renounce his freedom to express his opinion and think what he wants, but each one is, by the supreme right of nature, the owner of his thoughts, it follows that he never can try in a state, without condemning itself to a resounding failure, that men only speak by prescription of the supreme powers, although they have different opinions and still contrary.
The fact that each person makes his decisions and creates a different flow of thought in himself, makes it not possible to dominate his opinions.
7. By law and institution of nature I do not understand anything other than the rules of the nature of each individual, according to which we conceive that each being is naturally determined to exist and act in a precise.
Individuals are part of the whole of nature.
8. To get rid of this mob, free our minds from the prejudices of theologians, and not recklessly embrace the inventions of men as if they were divine doctrines, we must address the true method of interpreting Scripture and discuss it thoroughly; since, if we do not know it, we will not be able to know with certainty what the Scripture or the Holy Spirit wants to teach. Simply put, the method of interpreting Scripture is not different from the method of interpreting nature, but fully agrees with it.
Spinoza, son of the Renaissance, wanted to liberate the knowledge of the dogmas that governed philosophy during the Middle Ages, even those referring to biblical scriptures.
9. Those who stand out most for their imagination have less aptitude for purely intellectual knowledge.
For this thinker, the imagination is a form of fuzzy thought that does not fit with the purely intellectual activity.
10 Those who stand out for their intelligence and cultivate it to the fullest have the power to imagine more moderate and more controlled, as if held with a brake so that it is not confused with the understanding.
A phrase from Spinoza related to the previous one.
11. Everything we do must tend towards progress and improvement.
This reflection shows your faith in progress and advancement.
12. Whoever tries to determine everything with laws, will rather cause vices than correct them. What cannot be prohibited is necessary to allow, although many times some damage follows. How many evils, indeed, do not come from luxury, envy, greed, drunkenness and similar acts? And they are supported, however, because they cannot be avoided by the prohibition of the laws, even if they are really vices.
A reflection that defies the logic of the most authoritarian mentalities.
13. The more simultaneously concurrent causes arouse an affect, the greater is it.
A reflection on certain types of psychological phenomena.
14. The greatest of all imperfections is not existing.
A phrase reminiscent of the ontological argument of San Anselmo.
15. In any case, it is not the weapons that overcome the spirits, but love and generosity.
Emotions have a more powerful impact on people than weapons.
16. The academies that are formed by the State are instituted not so much to cultivate minds, as to bridle them.
A paradox: people can be taught to limit their abilities and freedom to think.
17. Enjoy pleasures to the extent that is sufficient to protect health.
A recommendation that hints at the dangers of excesses.
18. The order and connection of ideas is the same as the order and connection of things.
Spinioza believed in an equivalence between the spiritual and material world.
19. Sin cannot be conceived in a natural state, but only in a civil state, where what is good or bad is decreed by common consent.
In this way, Spinoza characterized sin as a social construct.
20. And of all the ideas that each one has, we make a whole or, what is the same, an entity of reason, which we call understanding.
Our understanding is a broad category that encompasses all the ideas to which we have access.
21. The same thing can be at the same time good, bad, and indifferent. For example, music is good for the melancholy, bad for those in mourning, and neither good nor bad for the deaf.
The reality is multi-faceted.
22. I also know that it is as impossible for the common people to free themselves from superstition as from fear.
There are certain patterns of thinking and feeling that constantly make us fall into them.
23. Anything that is contrary to nature is also contrary to reason, and anything that is contrary to reason is absurd.
A logical derivation about the unnatural.
24. Freedom of judgment must be granted, since it is a virtue and cannot be oppressed.
About the psychological properties of people.
25. However, although natural science is divine, the name of prophets cannot be given to those who propagate it, since what they teach can be perceived and accepted by other men with equal certainty and dignity, and not simply faith.
A curious distinction important in Spinoza's time, although not so much today.
26. But suppose that this freedom is oppressed and that it is possible to subject men to the point that they do not dare to speak a word without the permission of the supreme powers. It will never be achieved with that that they do not think anything other than what they want.
About the absurdity of trying to regulate thoughts.
27. Men are generally of such a character that they bear nothing with less patience than to hold opinions which they believe to be true as a crime.
About the relative truth held in opinions, and the debates that this clash of ideas provokes.
28. Both the prince and the entire army could not be more attracted to war than to peace. Indeed, the army was formed, as we have said, only by citizens and, therefore, it was the same men who administered both the war and the peace. Hence, whoever was a soldier in the camp was a citizen in the forum, and whoever was chief in the camp was a prince in the city. No one could wish, therefore, war for war, but for peace and to defend freedom.
Spinoza reflects on the motivations that led people to war.
29. The most violent state, then, will be the one in which everyone is denied the freedom to say and teach what he thinks; and it will be, on the other hand, moderate the one in which the same freedom is granted to all.
Another of Spinoza's reflections on law.
30. Just as men have used to call divine science that exceeds the capacity This is how they have also called divine work or work of God to that work whose cause is ignored by the common people.
Knowledge is distributed differently by social strata.
31. The common people, in fact, believe that the power and providence of God are never so evident as when he sees what happens in the somewhat unusual nature and contrary to the opinion he has received about it, especially if it results in benefit and comfort own.
About the type of events that encourage the attribution of a work to God.
32. The common people call miracles or works of God to the unusual works of nature; And partly out of devotion, partly out of desire to oppose those who cultivate the natural sciences, he boasts of ignoring natural causes and only wants to hear what he ignores, and therefore what he admires most.
A paradox: that whose explanation is unknown can arouse more interest insofar as it is ignored than what is known.
33. An object that is destined for the practice of piety and religion is called sacred and divine, and it will only be sacred as long as men make a religious use of it. If they cease to be pious, ipso facto he will also cease to be sacred; and, if they dedicate it to do ungodly things, it will become unclean and profane just as it was previously sacred.
Even sacred objects are so relative to what is done with it by social consensus.
34. Scripture usually paints God in the image of man and attributes to him soul, spirit, affections, and even body and breath, because of the weak intelligence of the common people.
Spinoza believed that we limit the conception of God so that it reaches the masses.
35. If you don't want to repeat the past, study it.
An interesting aphorism about the importance of knowing the past, individual or collective.
36. There is nothing whose nature does not follow some effect.
Everything in nature is connected through cause and effect.
37. That a finite understanding cannot understand anything by itself, unless it is determined by something external.
Another of Spinoza's reflections based on logic.
38. The most important activity that a human being can achieve is to learn to understand, because to understand is to be free.
An opinion very much in the vein of other well-known philosophers, as for example Plato.
- You may be interested: "Plato's theory of ideas"
39. The cause that gives rise, that preserves and that fosters superstition is, then, fear.
Spinoza located in this emotion the origin of superstitions.
40. I have carefully taken care not to mock human actions, not deplore them, nor detest them, but understand them.
A statement of intent by this thinker.
41. Men are deceived by believing they are free; and the reason for this opinion is that they are aware of their actions, but ignore the causes because they are determined; therefore, what constitutes his idea of freedom is that they do not know any cause of his actions.
Ignorance makes us think we are free.
42. He who regrets what he has done is doubly miserable.
An opinion on regret as loss.
43. That which is in itself and is conceived by itself; that is, that whose concept does not need the concept of something else, from which it must be formed.
A definition of what exists by itself.
44. We have said that the soul is an idea, that it exists in the thinking thing and that it proceeds from the existence of a thing that exists in nature.
Once, highlighting the connection between the natural and the spiritual.
45. Everything that men decide for their welfare does not follow that it is also for the welfare of all of nature, but rather, on the contrary, it can be for the destruction of many other things.
The interests of the human being do not have to include respect for the rest of the elements of nature.
46. By God I understand an absolutely infinite being, that is, a substance consisting of infinite attributes, each of which expresses an eternal and infinite essence.
A brief definition of what for Spinoza God was.
- Related article: "What was Spinoza's God like and why did Einstein believe in him?"
47. Only a grim and sad superstition can forbid delight.
In defense of pleasure.
48. The greatest pride, and the greatest abjection, are the greatest ignorance of oneself.
A curious paradox.
49. Many philosophers have believed that outside the small field of the globe, where they are, there is no other, since they do not observe it.
A critic to those who do not think beyond their referents.
50. Most of the errors are simply that we do not correctly apply names to things.
An idea that centuries later was rescued by analytical philosophers.
51. Society is extremely useful and equally necessary, not only to live in safety in the face of enemies, but also to have an abundance of many things; for, unless men want to collaborate with each other, they will lack art and time to sustain and preserve themselves as best as possible.
A justification for the existence of the society.
52. Flattery also begets concord, but through the disgusting vice of servility, or perfidy.
There are different paths to the same behavior patterns.
53. The arrogant, who want to be the first, but not being so, are the ones who most easily fall into the nets of flattery.
Another of Baruch Spinoza's phrases in which he generalizes to a group of the population.
54. If man has an idea of God, God must formally exist.
At least on some plane of reality, God exists.
55. That which is not loved, never provokes struggles, neither sadness, nor laziness, nor envy, if someone else possesses it, neither fear nor hatred nor, in a word, any inner commotion.
Love mobilizes us, for better and for worse.
56. He is only free that which exists by the needs of his own nature, and he is influenced in his actions only by himself.
He can only be free if he is disconnected from the rest.
57. The true freedom of man has to do with strength, that is, with firmness and generosity.
A portrait of the characteristics that make man freer.
58. The search for honors and riches also distracts the mind, and not a little, especially when it is sought for itself, since then it is considered as the highest good.
What is seen as a sign of power and wealth, can divert us from our most significant projects.
59. The purpose of the ceremonies was, then, this: that the men did nothing by their own decision, but everything by mandate alien and that with their actions and considerations they left evidence that they were not autonomous, but totally dependent on other.
Ceremonies regularize behaviors.
60. A free man thinks of nothing less than death, and his wisdom is not a meditation on death, but on life.
Another of Spinoza's aphorisms, this time linked to thoughts about death.
61. Someone may think, however, that in this way we turn subjects into slaves, believing that he is a slave who works by order, and free who lives as he pleases. But this is far from being true, since, in reality, one who is driven by his appetites and is unable to see or do anything that is useful, is a slave to the maximum.
62. The human soul is apt to perceive a great many things, and the more apt the more ways his body can be arranged.
On the flexibility of intellectual gifts.
63. All things in nature are either things or actions. Now, good and evil are not things or actions. Therefore good and evil do not exist in nature.
The good and the bad are social constructions.
64. It is not obedience, but the end of action, that makes one a slave. If the end of the action is not the utility of the agent himself, but the one he commands, then the agent is a slave and useless for himself.
We are enslaved through inaction.