#er

None are more taken in by flattery than the proud, who wish to be the first and are not. ↗

— Baruch Spinoza

#first #flattery #more #none #proud

One and the same thing can at the same time be good, bad, and indifferent, e.g., music is good to the melancholy, bad to those who mourn, and neither good nor bad to the deaf. ↗

— Baruch Spinoza

#deaf #good #indifferent #melancholy #mourn

Only that thing is free which exists by the necessities of its own nature, and is determined in its actions by itself alone. ↗

— Baruch Spinoza

#alone #determined #exists #free #itself

Peace is not the absence of war, but a virtue based on strength of character. ↗

— Baruch Spinoza

#based #character #peace #strength #virtue

So long as a man imagines that he cannot do this or that, so long as he is determined not to do it; and consequently so long as it is impossible to him that he should do it. ↗

— Baruch Spinoza

#consequently #determined #him #imagines #impossible

True virtue is life under the direction of reason. ↗

— Baruch Spinoza

#life #reason #true #under #virtue

Whatsoever is, is in God, and without God nothing can be, or be conceived. ↗

— Baruch Spinoza

#god #nothing #whatsoever #without

As a child, I read science fiction, but from the very beginnings of my reading for pleasure, I read a lot of non-fictional history, particularly historical biography. ↗

— Norman Spinrad

#biography #child #fiction #historical #history

Mexico was conquered more by manipulation of myth and archetype. ↗

— Norman Spinrad

#manipulation #mexico #more #myth

I believe that interest in heroes is universal and eternal. ↗

— Norman Spinrad

#eternal #heroes #i #i believe #i believe that