Baruch Spinoza Quotes
... the populace is variable and inconstant, so that, if a reputation be not kept up, it quickly withers away.
The ability of the public to change views swiftly has been observed by many earlier writers. Most of them thought the mob fickle and not worth the trouble to worry about public opinion. See {627556} for such an example. Spinoza argued the modern democratic view that it was critical. Spinoza’s ideas were considered so radical and dangerous that he was the only man in history who was excommunicated by the Catholics, the Jews and the Muslims.
Benedict Spinoza, 1632-1677, Dutch Philosopher, Ethics, 1677
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Spinoza was one of the most feared intellectuals in human history—feared, that is, by the established power structures. Spinoza’s ideas were considered so radical and dangerous that he was the only man in history who was excommunicated by the Catholics, the Jews and the Muslims.
Baruch (de) Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese Sephardi origin. One of the early thinkers of the Enlightenment and modern biblical criticism, including modern conceptions of the self and the universe, he came to be considered one of the great rationalists of 17th-century philosophy. Inspired by the groundbreaking ideas of René Descartes, Spinoza became a leading philosophical figure of the Dutch Golden Age. Spinoza's given name, which means "Blessed", varies among different languages. In the Netherlands he used the Portuguese name Bento. In his Latin and Dutch works, he used Latin: Benedictus de Spinoza.
