Baruch Spinoza - The Prince of Philosophers

The son of an immigrant Portuguese Jewish family, Baruch Spinoza would lead a relatively simple life and supported himself as a lens maker and contributions from benefactors. While Spinoza is said to have been an excellent lens maker it is his devotion to philosophy, ethics and theology that this man will be remembered for. Spinoza published few works in his lifetime but his ideas came to circulate all the same and resulted in the University of Heidelberg offering him a chair, which he declined for fear that it might restrain his thought.