If men were born free, they would, so long as they remained free, form no conception of good and evil.

Si homines liberi nascerentur, nullum boni, & mali formarent conceptum, quamdiu liberi essent.

Baruch Spinoza

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More information about this quote

Topic

Freedom Good and evil Human nature

Author

Baruch Spinoza

Source

Ethics

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Latin

Time

1677 1670s 17th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Occupation

Jewish philosopher Jewish writer Philosopher Writer

From

Netherlands Europe

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Spinoza, Baruch. Ethica, Ordine Geometrico Desmonstrata [Ethics, Demonstrated in Geometrical Order]. 1677, pt. 4, prop. 68.

Current Citation

Spinoza, Benedict. Ethics, translated by Michael Silverthorne and Matthew J. Kinser. Cambridge University Press, 2018, pt. 4, prop. 68.

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Related Quotes

Below are one or more quotes that share at least one tag with the quote at the top of the page

Another quote from the 1670s

A service beyond all recompense
Weighs so heavy that it almost gives offense.

Pierre Corneille

Surena

More information about this quote
Topic
Favors
Speaker
Orode

Author

Pierre Corneille
Source
Surena
Medium
Play
Genre
Tragedy (play) Tragedy
Language
French
Time
1674 1670s 17th century
Authentication Score 1
Citation

Corneille, Pierre. Surena. 1674, act 3, sc. 2.

Another quote about Freedom

The truth which makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear.

Herbert Agar

More information about this quote
Topic
Truth hurts Truth Willful ignorance Freedom

Author

Herbert Agar
Source
A Time for Greatness
Statement Type
Irony
Language
English
Time
1942 1940s 20th century
Authentication Score 3
Citation

Agar, Herbert. A Time for Greatness. Little, Brown and Company, 1942.

Another quote from Age of Enlightenment

Of all the animals, with which this globe is peopled, there is none towards whom nature seems, at first sight, to have exercis'd more cruelty than towards man, in the numberless wants and necessities, with which she has loaded him, and in the slender means, which she affords to the relieving these necessities.

David Hume

A Treatise of Human Nature

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More information about this quote
Topic
Acquisitiveness The human condition

Author

David Hume
Source
A Treatise of Human Nature
Medium
Treatise
Genre
Philosophical literature
Language
English
Time
1739 1730s 18th century
Era
Age of Enlightenment
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Hume, David, [published anonymously]. A Treatise of Human Nature. London: John Noon, 1739, bk. 3, pt. 2, sect. 2.

Current Citation

Hume, David. "A Treatise of Human Nature." The Clarendon Edition of the Works of David Hume, edited by David Fate Norton and Mary J. Norton. Vol. 1, Oxford University Press, 2007, bk. 3, pt. 2, sect. 2.

Another quote originally in Latin

The alteration of motion is ever proportional to the motive force impressed; and is made in the direction of the right line in which that force is impressed.

Isaac Newton

Principia

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More information about this quote
Topic
Newton's laws of motion Laws of physics

Author

Isaac Newton
Source
Principia
Genre
Scientific literature
Language
Latin
Time
1687 1680s 17th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Newton, Isaac. "Axiomata sive Leges Motus: [Axioms, or Laws of Motion]." Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica [The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy], vol. 1. London: Josephi Streater, 1687, law 2.

Current Citation

Newton, Isaac. "Axioms, or the Laws of Motion." The Principia, translated by Andrew Motte. Prometheus, 1995, law 2.