Baruch Spinoza
Brief Bio: One of the foremost and seminal thinkers of the Enlightenment, modern biblical criticism, and 17th-century Rationalism
Lived: 1632-1677
For further info: en.wikipedia.org
Quotes:
“Freedom of Judgment”
Since we have the rare good fortune to live in a commonwealth where the freedom of judgment is fully granted to the individual citizen and he may worship God as he pleases, and where nothing is esteemed dearer and more precious than freedom, I think I am undertaking no ungrateful or unprofitable task in demonstrating that not only can this freedom be granted without endangering piety and the peace of the commonwealth, but also the peace of the commonwealth and piety depend on this freedom.
1670 from the book Tractatus Theologico-Politicus
“Notions to Explain Nature”
We see therefore that all the notions whereby the common people are wont to explain Nature are merely modes of imagining and denote not the nature of anything but only the constitution of the imagination.
1677 from the book The Ethics