Baruch Spinoza

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

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

If you want the present to be different from the past, study the past. ”

Ambition is the immoderate desire for power. ”

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 an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice. ”

Men govern nothing with more difficulty than their tongues, and can moderate their desires more than their words. ”

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

Fear cannot be without hope nor hope without fear. ”

Fame has also this great drawback, that if we pursue it, we must direct our lives so as to please the fancy of men. ”