Quote #80

It is not possible that we should remember that we existed before our body, for our body can bear no trace of such existence, neither can eternity be defined in terms of time, or have any relation to time. But, notwithstanding, we feel and know that we are eternal. For the mind feels those things that it conceives by understanding, no less than those things that it remembers.

More from Baruch Spinoza

  1. The human mind cannot be absolutely destroyed with the body, but there remains of it something which is eternal.
  2. The more we understand particular things, the more do we understand God.
  3. God is without passions, neither is he affected by any emotion of pleasure or pain. ... Strictly speaking, God does not love or hate anyone.
  4. Whatsoever the mind understands under the form of eternity, it does not understand by virtue of conceiving the present actual existence of …
  5. He who clearly and distinctly understands himself and his emotions loves God, and so much the more in proportion as he more understands him…
  6. He, who possesses a body capable of the greatest number of activities, possesses a mind whereof the greatest part is eternal.
  7. Those are most desirous of honor and glory who cry out the loudest of its abuse and the vanity of the world.
  8. Most people seem to believe that they are free, in so far as they may obey their lusts, and that they cede their rights, in so far as they …

All Baruch Spinoza quotes