“I have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule, not to bewail, not to scorn human actions, but to understand them.”

“All noble things are as difficult as they are rare.”

— Baruch Spinoza, Ethics* (1677)

“All things in nature proceed from certain necessity and with the utmost perfection.”

— Baruch Spinoza, Ethics* (1677)

“God and Nature are one and the same.”

— Baruch Spinoza, Ethics* (1677)

“Man is not situated in nature as a kingdom within a kingdom, but as a part of the whole.”

— Baruch Spinoza, Ethics* (1677)

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

— Baruch Spinoza, Theological-Political Treatise* (1670)

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

— Baruch Spinoza, Ethics* (1677)