“Those who wish to seek out the cause of miracles and to understand the things of nature as philosophers, and not to stare at them in astonishment like fools, are soon considered heretical and impious, and proclaimed as such by those whom the mob adores as the interpreters of nature and the gods. For these men know that, once ignorance is put aside, that wonderment would be taken away, which is the only means by which their authority is preserved.””
More from Baruch Spinoza
“We feel and experience ourselves to be eternal.”
“No to laugh, not to lament, not to detest, but to understand.”
“Everything excellent is as difficult as it is rare.”
“All happiness or unhappiness solely depends upon the quality of the object to which we are…”