QUOTATIONS

Spinoza

Whatever is, is in God, and nothing can be conceived without God.
(Ethics I, P15)

Nothing, considered in its own nature, will be called perfect or imperfect.
(Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect)

That famous human freedom which everyone brags of having ... consists only in this; that men are conscious of their appetite and ignorant of the causes by which they are determined.
(Letter to Tschirnhaus)

One who has been badly received by a lover thinks of nothing but the inconstancy and deceptiveness of women, and their other, often-sung vices. All of these he immediately forgets as soon as his lover receives him again.
(Ethics V, P10, Scholia)

No one has lived among men without seeing that, when they are prospering, even those who are quite inexperienced are generally so overflowing woth wisdom that they believe themselves to be wronged if anyone wants to give them advice.
(A Critique of Traditional Religion)

It requires a singular power to bear with each one according to his understanding.
(Ethics IV, Appendix)

In despondency, there is a false appearance of morality and religion.
(Ethics IV, Appendix)

Minds, however, are not conquered by arms, but by love and nobility.
(Ethics IV, Appendix)

Mansur al-Hallaj

ana'l -Haqq - I am the Truth.
(this is the saying which apparently earned al-Hallaj his martyrdom - al Haqq also means God)

You know and are not known; You see and are not seen.
(Akhbar al-Hallaj 44, 1.4)

Your Spirit mixed with my Spirit little by little, by turns, through reunions and abandons.
And now I am Yourself, Your existence is my own, and it is also my will.
(Diwan al-Hallaj)

I find it strange that the divine whole can be borne by my little human part,
Yet due to my little part's burden, the earth cannot sustain me.
(Akhbar al-Hallaj, 11)

I have seen my Lord with the eye of my heart, and I said: "Who are You?" He said:"You."
(Diwan al-Hallaj, M. 10)

I do not cease swimming in the seas of love, rising with the wave, then descending; now the wave sustains me, and then I sink beneath it; love bears me away where there is no longer any shore.
(Diwan al-Hallaj, M. 34)