Baruch Spinoza Quotes
Only that thing is free which exists by the necessities of its own nature, and is determined in its actions by itself alone.
Spinoza, Baruch. Ethics. Translated by R. H. M. Elwes, George Bell and Sons, 1883, Part I, Def. 7.
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.
