Baruch Spinoza

"Humility is sadness arising from considering our own weakness; it is thereby passive."

"Repentance is sadness accompanying the idea of a past action judged wrong."

"Self-satisfied persons are easily deceived; true wisdom is to know oneself."

"Understanding is joy accompanying the idea of our own power."

"The greatest good is to understand things by the third kind of knowledge."

"To live according to reason and to understand things by reason are one and the same thing."

"Fear is sadness caused by an image of a future evil."

"Hope is an inconsistent pleasure, born of both fear and sadness."

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

"The love of God is man's highest good and his highest virtue."

"Whoever has truly understood and assimilated the lessons of life knows their worth."

"The mind's power is determined entirely by ideas formed from the body."

"To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction in the realm of nature."

"The more we engage in the life of action, the more alive we become."

"Industry and diligence are paths to perfection in all endeavours."

"The intellectual love of God is the highest form of happiness attainable by man."

"To deny the passions is to deny our nature; to control them is to perfect ourselves."

"The endeavour of each thing to persevere in its own being constitutes the essence of virtue."

"Ignorance is not innocence; it is a condition of diminished being."

"The mind and body are not two substances but one substance viewed from different angles."

"In a democracy, the common utility is the highest law."

"Tyranny is the state most conducive to superstition and fear."

"Liberty is born when tyranny falls and reason rises."

"The more we reduce our being to bodily existence, the farther we stray from perfection."

"Beauty is not a quality inherent in things; it is a response of the observer."

"Art elevates the mind by revealing hidden connections in nature."

"The imagination produces joy when it encounters beauty and sadness when it encounters deformity."

"Music is the expression of mathematical harmony in the realm of sound."

"All scientific truths are eternal, unchanging, and necessary."

"The highest form of knowledge reveals the necessity in all things."