The greatest pride, or the greatest despondency, is the greatest ignorance of one's self.
Baruch SpinozaRead
In so far as the mind sees things in their eternal aspect, it participates in eternity.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The mind's perception of things in a timeless manner connects it to the eternal.
Baruch Spinoza's quote suggests that when we perceive the world and its aspects beyond the confines of time, we align ourselves with a sense of eternity. This implies that our understanding and contemplation of existence can transcend temporal experiences, granting us a glimpse into something timeless and profound.
Themes
EternityMindPerceptionPhilosophyTimelessness
In practice
Example use cases
Discussing the concept of eternity in a philosophy class.
More from Baruch Spinoza
All quotes βA man is as much affected pleasurably or painfully by the image of a thing past or future as by the image of a thing present.
Baruch SpinozaRead
He who seeks to regulate everything by law is more likely to arouse vices than to reform them. It is best to grant what cannot be abolished, even though it be in itself harmful. How many evils spring from luxury, envy, avarice, drunkenness and the like, yet these are tolerated because they cannot be prevented by legal enactments.
Baruch SpinozaRead
No one doubts but that we imagine time from the very fact that we imagine other bodies to be moved slower or faster or equally fast. We are accustomed to determine duration by the aid of some measure of motion.
Baruch SpinozaRead
Fear cannot be without hope nor hope without fear. [They are the two sides of a coin, so learning how to manage fear through learning, understanding, rationality, controlled imagination, preparation, mental focus (including distraction) and a gratitude attitude is very helpful.]
Baruch SpinozaRead
He who wishes to revenge injuries by reciprocal hatred will live in misery. But he who endeavors to drive away hatred by means of love, fights with pleasure and confidence; he resists equally one or many men, and scarcely needs at all the help of fortune. Those whom he conquers yield joyfully
Baruch SpinozaRead
Similar quotes
things which in my mind blossom will stumble beneath a clumsiest disguise appear capable of fragility and indecision
E. E. CummingsRead
One impossible day, of an impossible month, of an impossible year.
Haruki MurakamiRead
As society becomes more complex and opaque, as social processes seem more impersonal and autonomous, and as elites of 'experts' become more annoying, more people are tempted to think that some 'they' is manipulating 'us', using, among other dark arts, advertising.
George WillRead
Conservatives and liberals understand the Christian faith as a set of ideas because, so understood, Christianity seems to be a set of beliefs assessable to anyone upon reflection.
Stanley HauerwasRead
Whenever we moderns pause for a moment, and enter the silence, and listen very carefully, the glimmer of our deepest nature begins to shine forth, and we are introduced to the mysteries of the deep, the call of the within, the infinite radiance of a splendor that time and space forgot
Ken WilberRead
I got a statistic for you right now. Grab your pencil, Doug. There are five billion trees in the world. I looked it up. Under every tree is a shadow, right? So, then, what makes night? I'll tell you: shadows crawling out from under five billion trees! Think of it! Shadows running around in the air, muddying the waters you might say. If only we could figure a way to keep those darn five billion shadows under those trees, we could stay up half the night, Doug, because there'd be no night!
Ray BradburyRead