Baruch Spinoza

"The eternal is that which cannot be conceived as non-existent."

"Sadness is the passage of a man from a greater to a lesser perfection."

"Joy is the passage of a man from a lesser to a greater perfection."

"The mind as we know it can never attain to absolute freedom."

"Human bondage is the inability to moderate and restrain the appetites."

"Self-preservation is the first and only foundation of virtue."

"In Nature there is no good or bad, these are human distinctions."

"The striving to persevere in being is the essence of any particular thing."

"He who has a true knowledge of virtue knows how to govern others as well as himself."

"The more we endeavour to live according to the dictate of reason, the more we endeavour to rely on ourselves alone."

"Insofar as Mind understands all things as necessary, it is affected with a certain kind of necessity."

"The human mind can be of such a nature that the part which we have shown to perish with the body is of no account in relation to what remains."

"God or Nature produces all things and is their immanent cause."

"Reason teaches us to love as reason prescribes, not as passion commands."

"The man who is guided by reason is more free in a state, where he lives according to common decrees, than in solitude."

"No one can give or transfer to another his natural right; nor is there any absolute authority to which he can be obliged to obey."

"Those who are accustomed only to fear become either slaves or tyrants."

"The endeavour to understand is the first and the only foundation of virtue."

"Happiness consists in the power of maintaining being and of performing actions conducive to the preservation and perfection of life."

"The Mind and Body are one and the same thing which is considered now under the attribute of thought, now under the attribute of extension."

"Everything individual is temporary; only eternal things are real."

"Perfection consists in an increase of power; imperfection in its decrease."

"The imagination alone is not sufficient to produce perfection; it requires reason."

"Imagination is a passive state of mind wherein the images of external bodies occur to us."

"Understanding follows necessarily from the existence of a thing that is understood."

"Jealousy is a form of sadness and hatred combined with the idea of some rival."

"Pity is sadness born of love for what we imagine threatened with evil."

"Gratitude arises from the desire to return good for good with equal or greater benefit."

"Shame is a sadness accompanied by the idea of some action we imagine others blame."

"Pride is self-esteem, an overestimate of our own power or excellence."