“My purpose is to explain, not the meaning of words, but the nature of things.”
Ethics (1677)
Original
Meum institutum non est verborum significationem sed rerum naturam explicare
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Baruch Spinoza 210
Dutch philosopher 1632–1677Related quotes

“But there are certain meanings that are lost forever the moment they are explained in words.”
IQ84 (2009-2010)
Variant: It is not that the meaning cannot be explained. But there are certain meanings that are lost forever the moment they are explained in words.
Source: 1Q84
Source: Before Galileo, The Birth of Modern Science in Medieval Europe (2012), p. 291

Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science, and Bad Religion in a World Without God with Steve Olson (2010)

1920s, Review of The Meaning of Meaning (1926)

Source: Why We Fail as Christians (1919), p. 93-94
Context: Simple, direct, and clear as they [these words] are, Jesus later in the day undertook to make them more vivid.... that no one should doubt them or lack in fully understanding them, Jesus, after leaving the Temple, went to the Mount of Olives, and there explained the meaning of his words by a picture of the Day of Judgment.... He says that when the Son of Man shall come in his glory to the judgment seat, all the nations shall be gathered before him, "and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me." …And Jesus answers them "Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me" …Surely it is worthy of note that Jesus does not indicate that the sheep will be questioned as to their sect or creed.... Moreover, the sheep are not even spoken of as the faithful or as the believers; they are simply those who love their fellow-men and therefore they are unconsciously righteous. Turning to the goats, he does not ask them either as to their faith, but as they had not fed the hungry, nor given drink to the thirsty, nor taken any stranger in, they are condemned to "everlasting fire."

“The whole point of taking pictures is so that you don’t have to explain things with words.”