He alone is free who lives with free consent under the entire guidance of reason - Benedictus de Spinoza

A comunidade amaldiçoa-me dia e noite, exortam a ira de Deus a recair sobre mim por toda a eternidade, pedem que todas as maldições contidas nas leis divinas me sejam infligidas, desejam que o meu nome desapareça para sempre do planeta, proíbem que quem quer que seja mantenha comigo qualquer tipo de relação, privada ou profissional, recusam compartilhar tecto comigo, e enfim proíbem que se aproximem a menos de quatro côvados de mim. Finalmente posso tornar-me um filósofo livre.

Spinoza accomplishes the synthesis of traditional philosophical components by means of breaking and shattering. It is useless to pursue the presuppositions of Spinozian philosophy if we do not look for them in the qualitative leap determined by his philosophy. The continuity of Spinozian thought with respect to the preceding course of the history of metaphysics consists of a radical discontinuity, one that exalts the utopia of consciousness and freedom (a patrimony of Western thought) in a project of liberation. The perspective of the world is not a utopia, the immanentism is not aesthetic, and the liberation is no longer artisanal, but all of this is presupposed, it is taken as a basis.

Needs must it be hard, since it is so seldom found. How would it be possible, if salvation were ready to our hand, and could without great labour be found, that it should be by almost all men neglected? But all things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.