تَعوَّد اليهود أن يَنسِبوا إلى الله ما كان يتعدَّى فهْمَهم ويجهلون أسبابه الطبيعية في ذلك العصر، فالعاصفة «غضب الله»، والرعد والصاعقة سهام الله. ويعتقد أنَّ الل… - Benedictus de Spinoza

في صموئيل (الأول، ١١: ٧) للتعبير عن الرعب الشديد: «فوقع رُعب الربِّ على الشعب.» وبهذا المعنى تَعوَّد اليهود أن يَنسِبوا إلى الله ما كان يتعدَّى فهْمَهم ويجهلون أسبابه الطبيعية في ذلك العصر، فالعاصفة «غضب الله»، والرعد والصاعقة سهام الله. ويعتقد أنَّ الله يحبِس الرياح في كهوفٍ يُسمُّونها غرفة كنز الله، ويختلفون في هذا الصَّدَد عن الوثنِيِّين؛ لأنهم يجعلون الله وليس أيول مُسيِّر الرياح، وللسبب نفسه سُمِّيت المُعجزات أفعال الله أي أفعالًا تُثير الدهشة

...The most terrifying affirmations, like that of Clement of Alexandria who declares that "Matter is eternal," are drawn from a treasury of the philosophical propositions that most tantalized Flaubert, above all those of Spinoza, for whom his admiration was unlimited, the Spinoza of the Ethics and particularly of the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus. If we had the time, we could uncover a panoply of Spinozisms in the devil's discourse at the end of The Temptation of Saint Anthony. This discourse is not purely Spinozist: it is not homogeneous in this respect, but it has recourse to recognizable schemata from the Ethics. The devil, to be sure, is no atheist; no one is less atheist than the devil. But he does not deny God's extension and therefore his substance any more than Spinoza does; [...] The devil is no more an atheist than Spinoza, and Flaubert says that all those who "accuse" Spinoza of atheism are "asses". But he plays this Spinoza off against religion and its forms of imagination, against the illusions of figures in the politics of religion; and in this regard, the Tractatus Theologico-politicus is even more important than the Ethics. Flaubert discovered the Tractatus in 1870, while he was working on the Temptation. The book, he says, "dazzles" and "astounds" him; he is "transported with admiration." In a moment, I will venture a hypothesis on the privileged place of Spinoza in Flaubert's library or philosophical dictionary, as well as in his company of philosophers, for his first impulse is always one of admiration for Spinoza the man ("My God, what a man! what an intellect! what learning and what a mind!" "What a genius!"). [...] With this gesture, Flaubert also shows himself to be Nietzsche's brother.

Spinoza (1634-77) is the noblest and most lovable of the great philosophers. Intellectually, some others have surpassed him, but ethically he is supreme.

The superstitious, who know how to reprove vices rather than how to teach virtues, and who strive, not to lead people by reason, but to restrain them by fear in such a way that they flee what is bad rather than love the virtues, simply intend all other people to be as miserable as they are, and so it is not surprising that they are for the most part irksome and hateful to human beings.