"Bonum et malum quod attinet, nihil etiam positivum in rebus, in se scilicet consideratis, indicant, nec aliud sunt praeter cogitandi modos seu notiones, quas formamus ex eo, quod res ad invicem comparamus. Nam una eademque res potest eodem tempore bona et mala, et etiam indifferens esse. Ex. gr. musica bona est melancholico, mala lugenti; surdo autem neque bona neque mala."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
As for the terms good and bad, they indicate no positive quality in things regarded in themselves, but are merely modes of thinking, or notions which we form from the comparison of things one with another. Thus one and the same thing can be at the same time good, bad, and indifferent. For instance, music is good for him that is melancholy, bad for him that mourns; for him that is deaf, it is neither good nor bad. — Preface; translation by R.H.M. Elwes
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ethics_(Spinoza_book)
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Ethics (Spinoza book)
291 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Ethics (Spinoza book) →
Related Quotes
"A body is called finite because we always conceive another greater body. So, also, a thought is limited by another th…"
"Thought is an attribute of God, or God is a thinking thing."
"By God, I mean a being absolutely infinite — that is, a substance consisting in infinite attributes, of which each ex…"
"That thing is called free, which exists solely by the necessity of its own nature, and of which the action is determi…"
"By eternity, I mean existence itself, in so far as it is conceived necessarily to follow solely from the definition o…"
"The more reality or being a thing has, the greater the number of its attributes."
"God, or substance, consisting of infinite attributes, of which each expresses eternal and infinite essentiality, nece…"
"Nature abhors a vacuum."
"Whatsoever is, is in God, and without God nothing can be, or be conceived."
"By that which is self-caused, I mean that of which the essence involves existence, or that of which the nature is onl…"