The greatest pride, or the greatest despondency, is the greatest ignorance of one's self.
Baruch SpinozaRead
To give aid to every poor man is far beyond the reach and power of every man. Care of the poor is incumbent on society as a whole.
Interpretation
Helping the poor is a collective responsibility rather than an individual one.
Baruch Spinoza emphasizes that while individuals may wish to aid the poor, the scale of such support requires systemic action from society as a whole. He argues that societal structures and collective efforts are necessary to adequately care for those in need, as no single person can shoulder this immense task alone.
In practice
In a community meeting discussing local charitable initiatives.
The greatest pride, or the greatest despondency, is the greatest ignorance of one's self.
A man is as much affected pleasurably or painfully by the image of a thing past or future as by the image of a thing present.
He who seeks to regulate everything by law is more likely to arouse vices than to reform them. It is best to grant what cannot be abolished, even though it be in itself harmful. How many evils spring from luxury, envy, avarice, drunkenness and the like, yet these are tolerated because they cannot be prevented by legal enactments.
No one doubts but that we imagine time from the very fact that we imagine other bodies to be moved slower or faster or equally fast. We are accustomed to determine duration by the aid of some measure of motion.
Fear cannot be without hope nor hope without fear. [They are the two sides of a coin, so learning how to manage fear through learning, understanding, rationality, controlled imagination, preparation, mental focus (including distraction) and a gratitude attitude is very helpful.]
He who wishes to revenge injuries by reciprocal hatred will live in misery. But he who endeavors to drive away hatred by means of love, fights with pleasure and confidence; he resists equally one or many men, and scarcely needs at all the help of fortune. Those whom he conquers yield joyfully
Because abortions are illegal, women who need and want them have no choice in the matter, and you-because you know how to perform them-have no choice, either
Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the Universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the Universe going.
Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it.
The knife of corruption endangered the life of New York City. The scalpel of the law is making us well again.
There's a way of life, there's a way of death. Which way are you on?
And what is the potential man, after all? Is he not the sum of all that is human? Divine, in other words?
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