Baruch Spinoza Quotes

I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.

for there is no folly of the beast of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men

We derive our vitality from our store of madness.

You'll find superstition a contagious thing. Some people let it get the better of them.

Ah, yes, superstition: it would appear to be cowardice in face of the supernatural.

Sanity calms, but madness is more interesting.

No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness.

I think we are intrinsically prone to being irrational and superstitious. A lot of it comes from our fear of the unknown and the fear of a lack of control over our fate.

In what depends on the known or the regular course of nature, the mind trusts to itself; but in strange and uncommon situations, it is the dupe of its own perplexity, and, instead of relying on its prudence or courage, has recourse to divination, and a variety of observances, that, for being irrational, are always the more revered.

Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy, the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth.

Superstition, then, is engendered, preserved, and fostered by fear.

No plan is then too futile, too absurd, or too fatuous for their adoption; the most frivolous causes will raise them to hope, or plunge them into despair — if anything happens during their fright which reminds them of some past good or ill, they think it portends a happy or unhappy issue, and therefore (though it may have proved abortive a hundred times before) style it a lucky or unlucky omen. No plan is then too futile, too absurd, or too fatuous for their adoption; the most frivolous causes will raise them to hope, or plunge them into despair — if anything happens during their fright which reminds them of some past good or ill, they think it portends a happy or unhappy issue, and therefore (though it may have proved abortive a hundred times before) style it a lucky or unlucky omen.

Trying to understand superstition rationally is like trying to pick up something made of wood by using a magnet.

Ah, but being in love made you mean and crazy. Love made you act like a fool even when you knew you were acting like a fool and couldn't help yourself from acting like a fool.

When you make people angry, they act in accordance with their baser instincts, often violently and irrationally. When you inspire people, they act in accordance with their higher instincts, sensibly and rationally. Also, anger is transient, whereas inspiration sometimes has a life-long effect.

A great fear, when it is ill-managed, is the parent of superstition; but a discreet and well-guided fear produces religion.

Wise men are not wise at all hours, and will speak five times from their taste or their humor, to once from their reason.

I can measure the motion of bodies but I cannot measure human folly.

Madness, like small fish, runs in hosts, in vast numbers of instances.

Little prigs and three-quarter madmen may have the conceit that the laws of nature are constantly broken for their sakes.

Men are so thoughtless, nay, so mad, that some, through fear of death, force themselves to die.

A knight errant who turns mad for a reason deserves neither merit nor thanks. The thing is to do it without cause

Our occasional madness is less wonderful than our occasional sanity.

The professor husband of a friend of mine has likened children to the insane. I often think of it. He says that children live on the edge of madness, that their behavior, apparently unmotivated, shares the same dream logic as crazy people's. I see what he means, and because I've learned to be patient with children, to tease out the logic that's always somewhere there, and irrefutable once explained.