Spinoza

"Desire is the very essence of man, in so far as it is constituted by any of his modifications."

"He who has never wavered in his belief of a Supreme Being has not fully understood the majesty of God's works."

"The more active the mind is, the more it is able to control and regulate the body's passions."

"God is not outside the natural world; God is Nature itself."

"Knowledge of the second kind is much more powerful than knowledge of the first kind."

"Every individual thing tends to preserve itself in its being so far as it lies in itself."

"Men will always be foolish victims of their passions until they are taught to understand them."

"There is no absolute or fixed quantity of motion and rest in the universe, only relations between parts."

"Love is joy accompanied by the idea of an external cause."

"The foundation of all virtue is the striving to maintain one's being."

"Our mind is a part of the infinite intellect of God."

"Passive emotions arise from inadequate ideas; active emotions arise from adequate ideas."

"Imagination leads to error; reason and intuitive science lead to truth."

"All emotions of hatred are bad because they diminish the power of acting."

"Suffering accompanies all change; therefore, the wise seek constancy through understanding."

"The best government is that which produces the most peace and harmony among its people."

"Time is the duration in which we conceive of the existence of things as divisible."

"A free man never thinks of death, and his wisdom is a meditation upon life, not upon death."

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

"To hate is to wish suffering upon what one does not understand."

"Intellect and duration are infinite in themselves, though finite in us."

"Money is necessary, but only so far as it serves to maintain the mind and body in their proper functioning."

"The human mind, so far as it is involved in bodily affections, cannot possess a true knowledge of itself."

"Blessedness consists in the ability to preserve our being without external determination."

"Those who lead must lead through the strength of their ideas, not through force."

"Art is the human attempt to understand and express the infinite through the finite."

"Music is the harmonization of diverse elements into a unified whole."

"Hope and fear are both signs of insufficient knowledge."

"We are the most determined when we act from adequate understanding of ourselves."

"Truth needs no witness to verify its validity; it carries its evidence within itself."