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The axioms in Ethics took me an hour and I still wasn't happy.

The best advice I ever got regarding Spinoza's Ethics was to read it backwards, and focus on the corollaries (and notes at the end of sections).

If you start the Ethics at the end you find a great introduction to reading Spinoza:

> But all things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.

It's from this I also derive my belief that if you find Spinoza "approachable" then you probably haven't spent enough time with Spinoza.

Beth Lord has a great guide to the Ethics.