« Listen to the story of this simple fisherman who rests in the shade of a palm tree. He relishes the joy of being. A rich man crosses him and encourages him to work more. "What are you going to do about it? replies the fisherman. - To earn money. - What's the point? - To live in a beautiful house. - And then after? - Have a big family. - What's next? - Expand your business with your children. - What's next? - After that, you will be quiet and happy to rest. "That's what I'm already doing." »

« Contentment brings happiness, even in poverty. Dissatisfaction brings unhappiness, even in wealth. »

« For Spinoza, everything is rational. He is convinced, and will try to prove it, that the totality of reality - distant galaxies at the heart of human beings - is governed by immutable laws, which explain all phenomena. "Man is not an empire in an empire," he explains. It is a part of nature and obeys the universal laws of life. He has no privilege that would entrust him with a status apart in creation - we see here a powerful break with all Jewish and Christian theology, but also the thought of Descartes. His behaviour responds, like any natural phenomenon, to laws of causality that you only need to know to understand it. Convinced that reason is capable of apprehending the mechanisms that determine us, Spinoza proposes a path of liberation based on a careful observation of ourselves, our passions, our emotions, our desires, our physical constitution, which alone will make us free. This belief that reality is totally intelligible is the cornerstone of all the spinozist edifice. For him, nothing is irrational. Of course, we can behave in an irrational way, but it is explained by causes that are enough to be discovered. Jealousy or anger, even the craziest, have an explanation just as logical as a storm or volcanic eruption. One can therefore understand this expression that Spinoza uses three times in his works: "Do not make fun, do not lament, do not hate, but understand." I chose this sentence as an example of this book, because it perfectly sums up Spinoza's intention in his philosophical approach: rather than reacting to events with our emotions, let us try to understand them. Once we understand that everything has a cause and we have grasped the chain of causes that have produced such a natural event or human action, we will no longer be in moral judgment, sarcasm, complaint, hatred or anger. We will be able to take a rational, fair, and therefore calm look at any situation. This does not remove the condemnation or criticism of this or that action, but one will consider, for example, a crime as one will consider an earthquake: something terrible, but logical, given the chain of natural causes that cause it. The consequences can be tragic, but they are never irrational and it is just as futile to hate a criminal as it is to hate the nature that causes an earthquake. »