“Spinoza: the absolute philosopher, whose Ethics is the foremost book on concepts.”

— Baruch Spinoza

Gilles Deleuze, Negotiations (cited in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://www.iep.utm.edu/d/deleuze.htm#SH3b) <br class="br">A - F, Gilles Deleuze

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Baruch Spinoza210

Dutch philosopher 1632–1677

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“Spinoza (1634-77) is the noblest and most lovable of the great philosophers. Intellectually, some others have surpassed him, but ethically he is supreme.”

Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) Dutch philosopher

Bertrand Russell, in The History of Western Philosophy (1945) Ch. X.
M - R

“Spinoza’s formula, “Deus=natura=substantia”, like all conclusions drawn from it in his Ethics and his earlier works, simply means that there is no God. This discovery of Spinoza’s became the starting point for modern philosophical thought.”

Lev Shestov (1866–1938) Russian theologian

Source: In Job's Balances: on the sources of the eternal truths, Foreword p. xxxix

“I always carry the Ethics of Spinoza with me.”

Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) Dutch philosopher

Original in German: Ich führe, die Ethik von Spinoza immer bei mir; er hat die Mathematik in die Ethik gebracht, so ich in die Farbenlehre, das heißt: da steht nichts im Hintersatz, was nicht im Vordersatz schon begründet ist.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, in a conversation with Boisserée, 3 August 1815. As quoted in Julie D. Prandi's “Dare To Be Happy!”: A Study of Goethe's Ethics (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1993)
G - L, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Spinoza is, for me, the prince of philosophers.”

Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) Dutch philosopher

Gilles Deleuze, Expressionism in Philosophy: Spinoza (cited in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://www.iep.utm.edu/d/deleuze.htm#SH3b)

“There is a concept which corrupts and upsets all others. I refer not to Evil, whose limited realm is that of ethics; I refer to the infinite.”

Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish language literature

Hay un concepto que es el corruptor y el desatinador de los otros. No hablo del mal cuyo limitado imperio es la ética; hablo del infinito.
"Avatars of the Tortoise"
Variant translations:
One concept corrupts and confuses the others. I am not speaking of the Evil whose limited sphere is ethics; I am speaking of the infinite.
There is a concept that is the corruptor and dazzler of others. I'm not talking about the evil whose limited empire is the ethic; I'm talking about infinity.
There is a concept that is the corrupter and destroyer of all others. I speak not of Evil, whose limited empire is that of ethics; I speak of the infinite.
Discussion (1932)

“What I admire in the ancient philosophers is their desire to make their lives conform to their writings, a trait which we notice in Plato, Theophrastus and many others. Practical morality was so truly their philosophy's essence that many, such as Xenocrates, Polemon, and Speusippus, were placed at the head of schools although they had written nothing at all. Socrates was none the less the foremost philosopher of his age, although he had not composed a single book or studied any other science than ethics.”

Nicolas Chamfort (1741–1794) French writer

Ce que j'admire dans les anciens philosophes, c'est le désir de conformer leurs mœurs à leurs écrits: c'est ce que l'on remarque dans Platon, Théophraste et plusieurs autres. La Morale pratique était si bien la partie essentielle de leur philosophie, que plusieurs furent mis à la tête des écoles, sans avoir rien écrit; tels que Xénocrate, Polémon, Heusippe, etc. Socrate, sans avoir donné un seul ouvrage et sans avoir étudié aucune autre science que la morale, n'en fut pas moins le premier philosophe de son siècle.
Maximes et Pensées (Van Bever, Paris : 1923), #448
Maxims and Considerations, #448

“Spinoza is the Christ of philosophers, and the greatest philosophers are hardly more than apostles who distance themselves from or draw near to this mystery.”

Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) Dutch philosopher

Gilles Deleuze & Félix Guattari, What is Philosophy? (cited in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://www.iep.utm.edu/d/deleuze.htm#SH3b) <br class="br">A - F, Gilles Deleuze

“The exercise of letters is sometimes linked to the ambition to construct an absolute book, a book of books that includes the others like a Platonic archetype, an object whose virtues are not diminished by the passage of time.”

Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish language literature

"Note on Walt Whitman" ["Nota sobre Walt Whitman"]
Discussion (1932)

“And in none of these ways are moral philosophers better than other philosophers or professors in other fields. Schwitzgebel even scrounged up the missing-book lists from dozens of libraries and found that academic books on ethics, which are presumably borrowed mostly by ethicists, are more likely to be stolen or just never returned than books in other areas of philosophy.”

Jonathan Haidt book The Righteous Mind

The Righteous Mind (2012)

“This book… is primarily and essentially an account of the discovery or invention of mathematical concepts, and the historical material is… divided and classified, neither chronologically nor biographically, but philosophically.”

George Frederick James Temple (1901–1992) British mathematician

100 Years of Mathematics: a Personal Viewpoint (1981)

“Spinoza: the absolute philosopher, whose Ethics is the foremost book on concepts.”

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