Q0057

Baruch Spinoza

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

A free man thinks of nothing less than of death; and his wisdom is a meditation not on death but on life.
Thinker Baruch Spinoza
School Modern Rationalism
Source Ethics IV, Prop. 67
Theme Freedom
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Ethics IV, Prop. 67, within the tradition of Modern Rationalism. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of freedom, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In Baruch Spinoza's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: Baruch Spinoza. (n.d.). A free man thinks of nothing less than of death; and his wisdom is a meditation not on death but on life. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0057

MLA: Baruch Spinoza. “A free man thinks of nothing less than….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0057.

Chicago: Baruch Spinoza. “A free man thinks of nothing less than….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0057.

Same thinker

More from Baruch Spinoza

  1. God, or Nature.
  2. Blessedness is not the reward of virtue, but virtue itself.
  3. It is of the nature of reason to perceive things under a certain form of eternity.
  4. The true end of the state is in reality freedom.
  5. A free man thinks of nothing less than of death.

All quotations by Baruch Spinoza

Same theme

More on freedom

  1. Extreme freedom seems to change into nothing but extreme slavery.
  2. Of things, some are in our power, and some are not.
  3. It is not things that disturb people, but their judgments about things.
  4. He who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave.
  5. If you are distressed by anything external, it is not the thing itself that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it.

Browse the freedom theme