Baruch Spinoza

"He who has a true understanding of things experiences a kind of joy whenever he thinks of anything, hateful though it may be in itself."

"Fear cannot exist where there is hope."

"A free man thinks of nothing less than of death, and his wisdom is a meditation not on death but on life."

"The human body is composed of a great number of parts of diverse nature."

"All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare."

"He who loves God cannot endeavor that God should love him in return."

"Hatred is increased by being reciprocated, and can on the other hand be destroyed by love."

"Nature abhors a vacuum."

"The more you have, the more you are occupied in keeping and protecting your possessions. The less you have, the less you have to fear will be taken from you."

"Men are conscious of their appetite and ignorant of the causes that determine it."

"Pleasure and pain are not opposites but exist on a continuum."

"In so far as the Mind understands all things as eternal, it has a certain eternal kind of existence."

"No one can hate God."

"If we think we are unconditionally hated by someone, we shall hate him unconditionally in return."

"The greatest good is the knowledge of the union which the mind has with the whole of nature."

"He whose body is capable of the greatest number of simultaneous activities, whose mind is capable of perceiving the greatest number of things simultaneously, is the most powerful."

"I am, I exist, is necessarily true whenever it is put forward by me or conceived in my mind."

"The human body needs a great number of varied things for its preservation."

"God is the efficient cause not only of the existence of things, but also of their essence."

"Desire is the very essence of man."

"The mind's highest good is the knowledge of God, and the mind's highest virtue is to know God."

"Those who have the power to thunder are led by a just cause."

"There is no absolute, or free will; but the mind is determined to wish this or that by a cause which is also determined by another cause, and this last by another cause, and so on to infinity."

"Men are formed from the dust, and as dust they shall return."

"Passive emotions diminish our power of thinking and acting."

"Joy is a transition from a lesser to a greater perfection."

"Sadness is a transition from a greater to a lesser perfection."

"To be determined to do something is to act upon necessity."

"There is no external torture that can compel me to believe what is false."

"No attribute of a substance can be conceived from which it follows that the substance is finite."