korrents · books

Ethics (tr. R. H. M. Elwes, 1883)

Baruch Spinoza · c. 1661–1675

The book opens with

Whatever exists is in God, and without God nothing can exist or be conceived

Their wordsWhatsoever is, is in God, and without God nothing can be, or be conceived.

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Baruch Spinoza did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this book, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The book prints chapter headings its extracted text does not preserve, so the claims below are in the book's order but not grouped. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

Our reading
Whatever exists is in God, and without God nothing can exist or be conceived

Their wordsWhatsoever is, is in God, and without God nothing can be, or be conceived.
Our reading
People think themselves free because they are aware of their wishes but ignorant of the causes that make them wish

Their wordsHerefrom it follows, first, that men think themselves free inasmuch as they are conscious of their volitions and desires, and never even dream, in their ignorance, of the causes which have disposed them so to wish and desire.
Our reading
The mind has no absolute or free will; each choice is determined by a cause, itself determined by another, without end

Their wordsIn the mind there is no absolute or free will; but the mind is determined to wish this or that by a cause, which has also been determined by another cause, and this last by another cause, and so on to infinity.
Our reading
Hatred grows when it is returned, and it can be destroyed by love

Their wordsHatred is increased by being reciprocated, and can on the other hand be destroyed by love.
Our reading
Good and bad are not qualities of things in themselves but notions formed by comparing things with one another

Their wordsAs for the terms good and bad, they indicate no positive quality in things regarded in themselves, but are merely modes of thinking, or notions which we form from the comparison of things one with another.
Our reading
A free person thinks about death least of all; their wisdom is a meditation on life, not death

Their wordsA free man thinks of death least of all things; and his wisdom is a meditation not of death but of life.
Our reading
Blessedness is not the reward of virtue but virtue itself; we do not rejoice because we control our lusts, we control them because we rejoice

Their wordsBlessedness is not the reward of virtue, but virtue itself; neither do we rejoice therein, because we control our lusts, but, contrariwise, because we rejoice therein, we are able to control our lusts.
Our reading
All excellent things are as difficult as they are rare

Their wordsBut all things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.

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The other pieces are the ones whose claims are worded most like this one's. That measures language, not agreement: they may argue the opposite.