Baruch Spinoza

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

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

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. ”

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

I have striven not to laugh at human actions, not to weep at them, nor to hate them, but to understand them. ”

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. ”

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