Spinoza's 'Ethics' Quotes

“we know a good deal about the free person, including many things about what he believes and how he acts. His desires are directed by reason and his deeds informed by virtue.”
― Steven Nadler, Spinoza's 'Ethics': An Introduction

“A man who is guided by reason" will have "strength of character." He "hates no one, is angry with no one, envies no one, is indignant with no one, scorns no one, and is not at all proud"; he will avoid "whatever he thinks is troublesome and evil, and moreover, whatever seems immoral, dreadful, unjust and dishonorable”
― Steven Nadler, Spinoza's 'Ethics': An Introduction

“A desire to do good for others and help them in their striving is generated by one's own living according to reason. "The desire to do good generated in us by our living according to the guidance of reason, I call morality”
― Steven Nadler, Spinoza's 'Ethics': An Introduction

“It is only when one can transform oneself from this forlorn condition of passivity to something like an active and self-sufficient existence that one can claim to be free, happy, and, ultimately, blessed.”
― Steven M. Nadler, Spinoza's 'Ethics': An Introduction

“His freedom consists precisely in the fact that the adequate cause of what he thinks, what he desires, and what he does lies within him, namely, his adequate ideas and his power of persevering.”
― Steven M. Nadler, Spinoza's 'Ethics': An Introduction

“The virtuous person is able to determine what is truly conducive to his well-being and what is not.”
― Steven M. Nadler, Spinoza's 'Ethics': An Introduction

“The more each one strives, and is able, to preserve his being, the more he is endowed with virtue”
― Steven M. Nadler, Spinoza's 'Ethics': An Introduction

“It is a life guided by reason and based in knowledge and understanding, where an individual does only what is truly useful for himself but also aids others in their own pursuit of perfection. The resulting moral philosophy is virtue-oriented. What matters most is not the actions that one performs, or even the intentions that one has, but above all the kind of person one is and the character one possesses.”
― Steven M. Nadler, Spinoza's 'Ethics': An Introduction

“Thus, Spinoza can say that while good and evil will remain relative to some standard, the standard itself is not relative to just anyone's conception of what the good life is but is in conformity with human nature itself.”
― Steven M. Nadler, Spinoza's 'Ethics': An Introduction

“Thus, our ordinary approach to labeling natural things as 'perfect' or 'imperfect' derives "more from prejudice than from true knowledge of those things.”
― Steven M. Nadler, Spinoza's 'Ethics': An Introduction