The greatest pride, or the greatest despondency, is the greatest ignorance of one's self.
Baruch SpinozaRead
.... we are a part of nature as a whole, whose order we follow.
Interpretation
We are integral to the natural world, adhering to its inherent order.
This quote by Baruch Spinoza emphasizes the interconnectedness of humanity and nature. It suggests that just as nature follows a specific order and structure, so too are we, as human beings, an essential part of that system, highlighting our responsibility to respect and cherish the natural world.
In practice
Use this quote in an environmental awareness campaign to emphasize our role in nature.
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
To the body and mind which have been cramped by noxious work or company, nature is medicinal and restores their tone. The tradesman, the attorney comes out of the din and craft of the street and sees the sky and the woods, and is a man again. In their eternal calm, he finds himself.
Because God created the Natural - invented it out of His love and artistry - it demands our reverence.
Nature must be viewed humanly to be viewed at all; that is, her scenes must be associated with humane affections, such as are associated with one's native place. She is most significant to a lover. A lover of Nature is preeminently a lover of man. If I have no friend, what is Nature to me? She ceases to be morally significant. . .
We might be more inclined to think about the longer term if we were more aware of what is happening around us. Perhaps daily weather forecasts could include a few basic facts about the Earth's vital signs or details of where climate change is increasing the likelihood of damaging weather?
We all moan and groan about the loss of the quality of life through the destruction of our ecology, and yet every one of us, in our own little comfortable ways, contributes daily to that destruction. It's time now to awaken in each one of us the respect and attention our beloved Mother deserves.
Every live thing is a survivor on a kind of extended emergency bivouac.
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