Baruch Spinoza Quotes
Things could not have been brought into being by God in any manner or in any order different from that which has in fact obtained.
Spinoza, Benedict de. The Chief Works of Benedict de Spinoza. Translated by R. H. M. Elwes, vol. 2, George Bell and Sons, 1884, p. 70.
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.
