Baruch Spinoza cytaty

strona 3

„(…) wyrazy „dobro” i „zło” mają znaczenie tylko względne, a więc jedną i tę samą rzecz można nazwać dobrą lub złą zależnie od tego, pod jakim względem jest wzięta.”

„Jestestwo wieczne i nieskończone, które nazywamy Bogiem, czyli Naturą, działa z tą samą koniecznością, z jaką istnieje.”

„To wszystko, co życie zazwyczaj nastręcza, a co ludzie, jak można sądzić z ich czynów, poczytują za dobro najwyższe, daje się sprowadzić do trzech rzeczy, a mianowicie: bogactwa, zaszczytów i rozkoszy zmysłowej.”

„Miłość nie jest czym innym, jak radowaniem się.”

„Lęk nie może istnieć bez nadziei, ani nadzieja bez lęku.”

„Oto jest cel, do którego zmierzam: pozyskanie takiej właśnie natury oraz staranie się o to, aby wielu ludzi razem ze mną ją posiadło. To znaczy, że do mego własnego szczęścia należy też dbanie o to, aby wielu innych ludzi zrozumiało to, co ja, i aby ich rozumienie i pożądanie pozostawały w zupełnej zgodności z moim rozumieniem i pożądaniem.”

„(…) wiedza o jedności łącząca umysł z całą Naturą.”

„(…) wszystko, co zachodzi, dzieje się według wiecznego porządku i stałych praw Natury.”

„Im lepiej rozumiesz siebie i swoje emocje, tym bardziej zaczynasz kochać to, co jest.”

„Przyjemność może być nadmierna i zła, przykrość zaś o tyle może być dobra, o ile przyjemność, czyli radość, jest zła.”

„Starałem się jedynie, aby ludzkich postępków nie wyśmiewać, nie opłakiwać i nie potępiać, lecz je zrozumieć.”

„(…) dobrze było mi wiadomo, jakie korzyści zdobywa się przez zaszczyty i bogactwo, ale również i to, że musiałbym wstrzymać się od pożądania ich, gdybym miał ubiegać się poważnie o rzecz nową, a zupełnie inną. Jasne było dla mnie, że gdyby szczęście najwyższe miało na tych właśnie rzeczach polegać, to musiałbym go być pozbawiony, gdyby zaś nie miało na nich polegać, a jednak za niemi tylko bym się ubiegał, to tak samo nie dostąpiłbym szczęścia najwyższego.”

„Zadowolenie z samego siebie jest prawdopodobnie najtrudniej osiągalne.”

„Każde określenie jest negacją.”

„Kto prawdziwie Kocha Boga, nie pragnie Jego Miłości wzajem.”

„Cokolwiek jest, jest w Bogu i nic bez Boga nie może być, ani dać się pojąć.”

„(…) liczne są przykłady ludzi, którzy dla swych bogactw ponosili prześladowania, dochodzące aż do śmierci, tudzież takich, którzy dla zdobycia skarbów narażali się na niebezpieczeństwa, aż w końcu życiem przypłacili swą głupotę.”

„Ludzka wolność ludzi polega zaledwie na tym, że człowiek zna swoje pragnienia, nie zna natomiast przyczyn, które je wywołują.”

„Im więcej posiadamy radości, tym doskonalsi jesteśmy.”

„(…) nic nie jest dobre lub złe samo w sobie.”

„Nie istnieją kłamstwa, a jedynie kalekie prawdy.”

„Szlachetne dusze nie smucą się z uczynionego dobra.”

„Ten, kto się śmieje ostatni, przeważnie nie ma jednego zęba na przedzie.”

„Nienawiść, którą całkowicie pokonała miłość, zamienia się w miłość, a jest ona tym większa, niż gdyby nie poprzedzała jej nienawiść.”

„Gdy chodzi o sprawy ludzkie, nie śmiać się, nie płakać, nie oburzać się, lecz rozumieć.”

“There is no hope unmingled with fear, and no fear unmingled with hope.”

“Be not astonished at new ideas; for it is well known to you that a thing does not therefore cease to be true because it is not accepted by many.”

“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.”

“In so far as the mind sees things in their eternal aspect, it participates in eternity.”

“The endeavor to understand is the first and only basis of virtue.”

“Pride is pleasure arising from a man's thinking too highly of himself.”

“What Paul says about Peter tells us more about Paul than about Peter”

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

“No to laugh, not to lament, not to detest, but to understand.”

“Happiness is not the reward of virtue, but is virtue itself; nor do we delight in happiness because we restrain from our lusts; but on the contrary, because we delight in it, therefore we are able to restrain them.”

“In practical life we are compelled to follow what is most probable ; in speculative thought we are compelled to follow truth.”

“None are more taken in by flattery than the proud, who wish to be the first and are not.”

“Hatred is increased by being reciprocated, and can on the other hand be destroyed by love. Hatred which is completely vanquished by love, passes into love; and love is thereupon greater, than id hatred had not preceded it.”

“Only in relation to our imagination can things be called beautiful or ugly, well-ordered or confused”

“We feel and experience ourselves to be eternal.”
Sentimus experimurque, nos aeternos esse.

“But love for an object eternal and infinite feeds the mind with joy alone, and a joy which is free from all sorrow. This is something greatly to be desired and to be sought with all our strength.”
Sed amor erga rem aeternam et infinitam sola laetitia pascit animum, ipsaque omnis tristitiae est expers; quod valde est desiderandum totisque viribus quaerendum.

“When sending his Short Treatise to his Amsterdam friends he begs of them to be sure that nothing but the good of their neighbours will ever induce them to communicate its doctrines to others.”

“In 1663 Spinoza published the only work to which he ever set his name… He had prepared a summary of the second part of Descartes' 'Principles of Philosophy' for the use of a pupil… Certain of Spinoza's friends became curious about this manual and desired him to treat the first part of Descartes' work also in the same manner. This was done within a fortnight and Spinoza was then urged to publish the book, which he readily agreed to do upon condition that one of his friends would revise the language and write a preface explaining that the author did not agree with all the Cartesian doctrine… The contents… [included] an appendix of 'Metaphysical Reflections,' professedly written from a Cartesian point of view, but often giving significant hints of the author's real divergence from Descartes….'On this opportunity,' he writes to Oldenburg, 'we may find some persons holding the highest places in my country… who will be anxious to see those other writings which I acknowledge for my own, and will therefore take such order that I can give them to the world without danger of any inconvenience. If it so happens, I doubt not that I shall soon publish something; if not, I will rather hold my peace than thrust my opinions upon men against the will of my country and make enemies of them.'… The book on Descartes excited considerable attention and interest, but the untoward course of public events in succeeding years was unfavourable to a liberal policy, and deprived Spinoza of the support for which he had looked….
If Spinoza had ever been a disciple of Descartes, he had completely ceased to be so… He did not suppose the geometrical form of statement and argument to be an infallible method of arriving at philosophical truth; for in this work he made use of it to set forth opinions with which he himself did not agree, and proofs with which he was not satisfied. We do not know to what extent Spinoza's manual was accepted or taken into use by Cartesians, but its accuracy as an exposition of Descartes is beyond question. One of the many perverse criticisms made on Spinoza by modern writers is that he did not understand the fundamental proposition cogito ergo sum. In fact he gives precisely the same explanation of it that is given by Descartes himself in the Meditations.”

“Time carries him as the river carries
A leaf in the downstream water.
No matter. The enchanted one insists
And shapes God with delicate geometry.
Since his illness, since his birth,
He goes on constructing God with the word.
The mightiest love was granted him
Love that does not expect to be loved.”

“Extreme pride or dejection indicates extreme ignorance of self.”
Maxima superbia vel abjectio est maxima sui ignorantia.

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

“God is the Immanent Cause of all things, never truly transcendent from them”
Deus est omnium rerum causa immanens, non vero transiens

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

“Needs must it be hard, since it is so seldom found. How would it be possible, if salvation were ready to our hand, and could without great labour be found, that it should be by almost all men neglected? But all things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.”
Et sane arduum debet esse, quod adeo raro reperitur. Qui enim posset fieri, si salus in promptu esset et sine magno labore reperiri posset, ut ab omnibus fere negligeretur? Sed omnia praeclara tam difficilia, quam rara sunt.

“I have resolved to demonstrate by a certain and undoubted course of argument, or to deduce from the very condition of human nature, not what is new and unheard of, but only such things as agree best with practice.”

“[B]y Natura naturans we must understand what is in itself and is conceived through itself, or such attributes of substance as express an eternal and infinite essence, that is … God, insofar as he is considered as a free cause.
But by Natura naturata I understand whatever follows from the necessity of God's nature, or from God's attributes, that is, all the modes of God's attributes insofar as they are considered as things which are in God, and can neither be nor be conceived without God.”

“I had hoped that out of so many stories you would at least have produced one or two, which could hardly be questioned, and which would clearly show that ghosts or spectres exist. The case you relate… seems to me laughable. In like manner it would be tedious here to examine all the stories of people, who have written on these trifles. To be brief, I cite the instance of Julius Caesar, who, as Suetonius testifies, laughed at such things and yet was happy. …And so should all who reflect on the human imagination, and the effects of the emotions, laugh at such notions; whatever Lavater and others, who have gone dreaming with him in the matter, may produce to the contrary.”

“This Idea of Spinoza's we must allow to be in the main true and well-grounded; absolute substance is the truth, but it is not the whole truth; in order to be this, it must also be thought of as in itself active and living, and by that very means it must determine itself as mind. But substance with Spinoza is only the universal and consequently the abstract determination of mind; it may undoubtedly be said that this thought is the foundation of all true views — not, however, as their absolutely fixed and permanent basis, but as the abstract unity which mind is in itself. It is therefore worthy of note that thought must begin by placing itself at the standpoint of Spinozism; to be a follower of Spinoza is the essential commencement of all Philosophy. For as we saw above … when man begins to philosophize, the soul must commence by bathing in this ether of the One Substance, in which all that man has held as true has disappeared; this negation of all that is particular, to which every philosopher must have come, is the liberation of the mind and its absolute foundation.”

“He who seeks equality between unequals seeks an absurdity.”