We cannot help being shaken or having our vision darkened, but we know that we have had moments of clearer vision, and that in them we had certainty. It is hard to put it into words. It was a certainty that beauty and truth and generosity were real things, and that there was something embracing all of these that gave direction to life, and an assurance that their reality need not be doubted when we saw them as we generally do, as in a glass, darkly. The Improvement of the Intellect , Spinoza For more quotes and hot links, click on More Spinoza. Self rides in the chariot of the body, intellect the firm-footed charioteer, discursive mind the reins.
Senses are the horses, objects of desire the roads.
When a man lacks steadiness, unable to control his mind, his senses are unmanageable horses. But if he control his mind, a steady man, they are manageable horses. He who calls intellect to manage the reins of his mind reaches the end of his journey, finds there all-pervading Spirit. God does not proclaim Himself, He is everybody's secret, but the intellect of the sage has found Him. A heavy rain was still falling.