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But love for an object eternal and infinite feeds the mind with joy alone, and a joy which is free from all sorrow. This is something greatly to be desired and to be sought with all our strength.

— Baruch Spinoza On the Improvement of the Understanding (1662)

Sed amor erga rem aeternam et infinitam sola laetitia pascit animum, ipsaque omnis tristitiae est expers; quod valde est desiderandum totisque viribus quaerendum.

Original text (Latin)

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Notes from Wikiquote

I, 10; translation by W. Hale White (Revised by Amelia Hutchison Stirling)

More quotes by Baruch Spinoza

I do not presume that I have found the best philosophy, I know that I understand the true philosophy.

Nature is satisfied with little; and if she is, I am also.

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All laws which can be broken without any injury to another, are counted but a laughing-stock, and are so far from bridling the desires and lusts of men, that on the contrary they stimulate them.

Political Treatise (1677)

A free man thinks of death least of all things; and his wisdom is a meditation not of death but of life.

Ethics (1677)

If slavery, barbarism and desolation are to be called peace, men can have no worse misfortune.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Baruch Spinoza (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.