Baruch Spinoza

“Peace is not the absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a desire for benevolence, confidence, justice.”

“He alone is free who lives with free consent under the entire guidance of reason.”

“Only that thing is free which exists by the necessities of its own nature, and is determined in its actions by itself alone.”

“I would warn you that I do not attribute to nature either beauty or deformity, order or confusion. Only in relation to our imagination can things be called beautiful or ugly, well-ordered or confused.”

“There is no hope unmingled with fear, and no fear unmingled with hope.”

“Freedom is absolutely necessary for the progress in science and the liberal arts.”

“All happiness or unhappiness solely depends upon the quality of the object to which we are attached by love.”

“Happiness is a virtue, not its reward.”

“Those who are believed to be most abject and humble are usually most ambitious and envious.”

“The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free.”

“Do not weep do not wax indignant. Understand.”

“One and the same thing can at the same time be good, bad, and indifferent, e.g., music is good to the melancholy, bad to those who mourn, and neither good nor bad to the deaf.”

“Whatsoever is contrary to nature is contrary to reason, and whatsoever is contrary to reason is absurd.”

“Nothing in the universe is contingent, but all things are conditioned to exist and operate in a particular manner by the necessity of the divine nature.”

“Nothing exists from whose nature some effect does not follow.”

“Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.”

“For peace is not mere absence of war, but is a virtue that springs from, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.”

“Peace is not the absence of war, but a virtue based on strength of character.”

“Ambition is the immoderate desire for power.”

“To give aid to every poor man is far beyond the reach and power of every man. Care of the poor is incumbent on society as a whole.”

“I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of established religion.”