Spinoza

"Every person naturally loves what increases their power of existing and acting."

"The wise person loves others not from duty but from the joy of being powerful."

"Spinoza rejected the notion that God created the world for human purposes."

"The mind aspires to preserve itself in being; this aspiration is the essence of appetite."

"Reason shows us that joy is preferable to sorrow in all circumstances."

"We are not truly loved unless those who love us also increase our power of acting."

"To live well is to increase one's power of thinking and acting without ceasing."

"The greatest love is that which arises from understanding another's true nature."

"All things follow from God's nature by logical necessity, not divine decree."

"Anger is sadness mixed with the idea of an external cause injuring us."

"The less we understand of the world, the more we are tossed about by external forces."

"Spinoza taught that immortality lies not in resurrection but in eternal truth."

"The mind is eternal and infinite in its striving to understand."

"Envy arises when we see someone like us enjoying something we desire."

"The pursuit of external goods is endless and never brings lasting satisfaction."

"To be in the grip of imagination is to be in the grip of illusion."

"The individual who acts from reason acts with power; the individual who reacts from passion acts with weakness."

"To live ethically is simply to live in accordance with one's own nature."

"Spinoza believed that nature itself is God; God is nature; they are one."

"The more we distance ourselves from passive emotions, the more we approach beatitude."

"To love someone is to desire their increase in power and understanding."

"The wise person understands that necessity rules all things and thereby finds peace."

"The human body is composed of a great number of parts of diverse nature, each requiring continual varied replenishment."

"He who has a true idea simultaneously knows that he has a true idea, and cannot doubt of the truth of the thing perceived."

"Freedom is not the absence of necessity, but the understanding of it."

"The more we understand individual things, the more we understand God."

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

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

"Nature does nothing by jumps; all changes are gradual."

"The highest virtue of the mind is to understand things under the aspect of eternity."