Ethics, Part III, Definition of the Emotions 38
Cruelty or savageness is the desire, whereby a man is impelled to injure one whom we love or pity.
Explanation
To cruelty is opposed clemency, which is not a passive state of the mind, but a power whereby man restrains his anger and revenge.
Benedict de Spinoza, The Ethics (Ethica Ordine Geometrico Demonstrata), translated from the Latin by R. H. M. Elwes.
First published in The Chief Works of Benedict de Spinoza, vol. II (London: George Bell and Sons, 1884).
This translation is out of copyright in the United States, where it was published in 1884, and wherever the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or less; its translator died in 1892.
Unit divisions, headings and the placement of notes are this site's.
Digital text: Project Gutenberg eBook #3800