Quote #150

Spinoza (1634-77) is the noblest and most lovable of the great philosophers. Intellectually, some have surpassed him, but ethically he is supreme. As a natural consequence, he was considered, during his lifetime and for a century after his death, a man of appalling wickedness.

More from Bertrand Russell

  1. I do not agree with Plato, but if anything could make me do so, it would be Aristotle's arguments against him.
  2. Since the world is what it is, it is clear that valid reasoning from sound principles cannot lead to error; but a principle may be so nearl…
  3. There is a story of a man who got the experience from laughing gas; whenever he was under its influence, he knew the secret of the universe…
  4. The quarrel between Hume and Rousseau is symbolic: Rousseau was mad but influential, Hume was sane but had no followers.
  5. A stupid man's report of what a clever man says is never accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something that he…
  6. Hume, by his criticism of the concept of causality, awakened him from his dogmatic slumbers-so at least he says, but the awakening was only…
  7. He founded a religion, of which the main tenets were transmigration of souls and the sinfulness of eating beans.
  8. Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education.

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