15 quotes
A free man thinks of death least of all things; and his wisdom is a meditation not of death but of life.
Ethics (1677)
The human mind has an adequate knowledge of the eternal and infinite essence of God.
Ethics (1677)
My purpose is to explain, not the meaning of words, but the nature of things.
Ethics (1677)
The order and connection of the thought is identical to with the order and connection of the things.
Ethics (1677)
Extreme pride or dejection indicates extreme ignorance of self.
Ethics (1677)
Truth is a standard both of itself and of falsity
Ethics (1677)
God is the Immanent Cause of all things, never truly transcendent from them
Ethics (1677)
The human mind cannot be absolutely destroyed with the body, but something of it remains which is eternal.... We feel and know by experience that we are eternal.
Ethics (1677)
...nature has no particular goal in view, and final causes are mere human figments. ...everything in nature proceeds from a sort of necessity, and with the utmost perfection.
Ethics (1677)
This endeavour to do a thing or leave it undone, solely in order to please men, we call ambition, especially when we so eagerly endeavour to please the vulgar, that we do or omit certain things to our own or another's hurt : in other cases it is generally called kindliness.
Ethics (1677)
We feel and know that we are eternal.
Ethics (1677)
Needs must it be hard, since it is so seldom found. How would it be possible, if salvation were ready to our hand, and could without great labour be found, that it should be by almost all men neglected? But all things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.
Ethics (1677)
To those who ask why God did not so create all men, that they should be governed only by reason, I give no answer but this: because matter was not lacking to him for the creation of every degree of perfection from highest to lowest; or, more strictly, because the laws of his nature are so vast, as to suffice for the production of everything conceivable by an infinite intelligence.
Ethics (1977)
But when a miser thinks of nothing but gain or money, or when an ambitious man thinks of nothing but glory, they are not reckoned to be mad, because they are generally harmful, and are thought worthy of being hated. But, in reality, Avarice, Ambition, Lust, &c., are species of madness, though they may not be reckoned among diseases.
Ethics (1677)
...from the perspective of the eternal.
Ethics (1677)