Ethics, Part IV, Proposition 3
The force whereby a man persists in existing is limited, and is infinitely surpassed by the power of external causes.
Proof
This is evident from the axiom of this part. For, when man is given, there is something else--say A--more powerful; when A is given, there is something else--say B--more powerful than A, and so on to infinity; thus the power of man is limited by the power of some other thing, and is infinitely surpassed by the power of external causes. Q.E.D.
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.
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Digital text: Project Gutenberg eBook #3800