Baruch spinoza

Fame has also this great drawback, that if we pursue it, we must direct our lives so as to please the fancy of men.

He alone is free who lives with free consent under the entire guidance of reason.

Only that thing is free which exists by the necessities of its own nature, and is determined in its actions by itself alone.

Self-complacency is pleasure accompanied by the idea of oneself as cause.

How would it be possible if salvation were ready to our hand, and could without great labor be found, that it should be by almost all men neglected? But all things excellent are as difficult as they...

Will and intellect are one and the same thing.

For peace is not mere absence of war, but is a virtue that springs from, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.

The greatest pride, or the greatest despondency, is the greatest ignorance of one's self.

Peace is not the absence of war, but a virtue based on strength of character.

So long as a man imagines that he cannot do this or that, so long as he is determined not to do it; and consequently so long as it is impossible to him that he should do it.