The things which...are esteemed as the greatest good of all…can be reduced to these… — Baruch Spinoza
The things which...are esteemed as the greatest good of all…can be reduced to these three headings: to wit, Riches, Fame, and Pleasure. With those three the mind is so engrossed that it cannot scarcely think of any other good.
In the original Latin
Nam quae plerumque in vita occurrunt, et apud homines, ut ex eorum operibus colligere licet, tamquam summum bonum aestimantur, ad haec tria rediguntur : divitias scilicet, honorem atque libidinem. His tribus adeo distrahitur mens, ut minime possit de alio aliquo bono cogitare.
1677
★ 5.2Provenance
Current citation
Spinoza, Baruch. "The Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect." Ethics: with The Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect and Selected Letters, edited by Seymour Feldman, translated by Samuel Shirley. Hackett Publishing Company, 1992, ch. 1, sect. 3.
Original citation
Spinoza, Baruch. Tractatus de Intellectus Emendatione [Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect]. 1677, ch. 1, sect. 3.