“But love for an object eternal and infinite feeds the mind with joy alone, and a joy which is free from all sorrow.”

— Baruch Spinoza, On the Improvement of the Understanding, I, 10, trans. W. Hale White

About Baruch Spinoza

1632 – 1677

Dutch philosopher, author of the "Ethics".

“All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.”

“A free man thinks of death least of all things; and his wisdom is a meditation not of death but of life.”

“Extreme pride or dejection indicates extreme ignorance of self.”

“Something the heart must have to cherish, must love and joy and sorrow learn.”

“Happy, even in anguish, is he to whom God has given a soul worthy of love and of grief!”

“Grief at the absence of a loved one is happiness compared to life with a person one hates.”

“They who know the truth are not equal to those who love it, and they who love it are not equal to those who delight in it.”

“Labour without joy is base. Labour without sorrow is base. Sorrow without labour is base. Joy without labour is base.”

“The best laid schemes o' mice and men Gang aft a-gley; And leave us naught but grief and pain For promised joy.”