“Human infirmity in moderating and checking the emotions I name bondage: for, when a man is a prey to his emotions, he is not his own master, but lies at the mercy of fortune: so much so, that he is often compelled, while seeing that which is better for him, to follow that which is worse.”

—  Baruch Spinoza, book Ethics

Part IV, Preface; translation by R. H. M. Elwes
Ethics (1677)

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Baruch Spinoza210
Dutch philosopher 1632–1677

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