"How would it be possible if salvation were ready to our hand, and could without great labor be found, that it should be by almost all men neglected? But all things excellent are as difficult as they are rare"
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Spinoza asks why, if the highest human good were easy and close at hand, so many ignore it. His answer is blunt: genuine excellence is scarce because it demands arduous effort. The remark closes the Ethics, where he has argued that freedom and blessedness do not come from miracle or favor but from understanding the necessary order of nature and realigning our lives with it.
Salvation here is not a theological ticket to another world but a transformation of this one: liberation from the tyranny of the passions through knowledge, the cultivation of active joy, and the intellectual love of God or Nature. That path requires rigor. It means replacing confused, partial perceptions with adequate ideas; mastering reactive emotions by seeing their causes; and training desire so that it expresses our essential striving rather than external manipulations. None of this sits well with habit, superstition, or the lure of immediate gratifications, which is why so many neglect it.
The rhetorical question anticipates an objection: if your way is true, why is it not universal? Spinoza refuses the cynical inference that rarity implies illusion. Instead, rarity follows from the structure of the human condition. We begin in bondage to external causes; we are tossed by fortune, social pressures, and inadequate knowledge. Overcoming this inertia is work. The geometric clarity of the Ethics offers a method, not a guarantee.
The concluding maxim has a wider resonance. It cautions against cheap utopias, whether political, religious, or self-help. Anything genuinely excellent — a just polity, a lucid mind, a stable joy — will be difficult precisely because it resists our default tendencies. Yet the difficulty is not despair; it is a measure of value and a call to disciplined practice. Spinoza leaves us with a sober hope: human flourishing is possible, rare because it is demanding, and dignified by the effort it requires.
Salvation here is not a theological ticket to another world but a transformation of this one: liberation from the tyranny of the passions through knowledge, the cultivation of active joy, and the intellectual love of God or Nature. That path requires rigor. It means replacing confused, partial perceptions with adequate ideas; mastering reactive emotions by seeing their causes; and training desire so that it expresses our essential striving rather than external manipulations. None of this sits well with habit, superstition, or the lure of immediate gratifications, which is why so many neglect it.
The rhetorical question anticipates an objection: if your way is true, why is it not universal? Spinoza refuses the cynical inference that rarity implies illusion. Instead, rarity follows from the structure of the human condition. We begin in bondage to external causes; we are tossed by fortune, social pressures, and inadequate knowledge. Overcoming this inertia is work. The geometric clarity of the Ethics offers a method, not a guarantee.
The concluding maxim has a wider resonance. It cautions against cheap utopias, whether political, religious, or self-help. Anything genuinely excellent — a just polity, a lucid mind, a stable joy — will be difficult precisely because it resists our default tendencies. Yet the difficulty is not despair; it is a measure of value and a call to disciplined practice. Spinoza leaves us with a sober hope: human flourishing is possible, rare because it is demanding, and dignified by the effort it requires.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
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