The greatest pride, or the greatest despondency, is the greatest ignorance of one's self.
Baruch SpinozaRead
A miracle signifies nothing more than an event... the cause of which cannot be explained by another familiar instance, or.... which the narrator is unable to explain.
Interpretation
What this quote means
A miracle is simply an event that cannot be easily explained by known causes or experiences.
In this quote, Spinoza suggests that the concept of a miracle is rooted in the inability of observers to rationalize specific extraordinary events using familiar explanations. This highlights the limitations of human understanding and the ways in which unexplained phenomena can be perceived as miraculous when they fall outside the realm of common experience or scientific reasoning.
Themes
MiracleEventExplanationPhilosophyUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophical discussion on the nature of reality, this quote can emphasize the limitations of human perception.
More from Baruch Spinoza
All quotes βA 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.
Baruch SpinozaRead
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.
Baruch SpinozaRead
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.
Baruch SpinozaRead
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.]
Baruch SpinozaRead
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
Baruch SpinozaRead
Similar quotes
America is the noisiest country that ever existed. One is waked up in the morning, not by the singing of the nightingale, but by the steam whistle.
Oscar WildeRead
Life externalizes at the level of our thought.
Ernest HolmesRead
We are slaves in the hands of nature - slaves to a bit of bread, slaves to praise, slaves to blame, slaves to wife, to husband, to child, slaves to everything.
Swami VivekanandaRead
Even though the body appears to be material, it is not. In the deeper reality, your body is a field of energy, transformation and intelligence.
Deepak ChopraRead
Sometimes, when I hear people without experience of addiction blame addicts for their behaviour, I feel like saying to them: 'You simply don't understand - how can a child be held responsible for doing such a dreadful thing to himself?' But then again, at other times I have to acknowledge: it was done wilfully.
Will SelfRead
I still do not understand how a corporation can have person-hood if it has no soul and never dies.
Jon StewartRead