Benedict de Spinoza:
Latinised form of Baruch Spinoza.
(Amsterdam, 24 November 1632 – The Hague, 21 February 1677). Dutch philosopher, political thinker and exegete of the Golden Age. He is considered one of the founders of rationalism, and one of the inspirers of the Enlightenment. To earn a living, he dragged glasses and lenses for microscopes.
Laws which prescribe what everyone must believe, and forbid men to say or write anything against this or that opinion, are often passed to gratify, or rather to appease the anger of those who cannot abide independent minds.
As light reveals itself and darkness, so truth is the touchstone of itself and of the false.
Truth is the standard both of itself and of falsity.
The object of the state, therefore, is in reality freedom.
