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bbfbe1a In the beginning there was nothing, which exploded. science metaphysics physics Terry Pratchett
f12f252 For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable - what then? science philosophy ontology metaphysics logic psychology George Orwell
7164e66 Physics depends on a universe infinitely centred on an equals sign. equilibrium metaphysics harmony mathematics physics Mark Z. Danielewski
dc53499 Dreams dress us carefully in the colors of power and faith. faith inspiration spirituality dreams inspirational positive-motivation mystical-poetry mystical-powers metaphysics power Aberjhani
3e577de "Serenity comes from the ability to say "Yes" to existence. Courage comes from the ability to say "No" to the wrong choices made by others." philosophy serenity metaphysics Ayn Rand
ceeccbc Origin of man now proved.--Metaphysics must flourish.--He who understands baboon would do more towards metaphysics than Locke. evolution metaphysics Charles Darwin
25897a5 A photograph is a universe of dots. The grain, the halide, the little silver things clumped in the emulsion. Once you get inside a dot, you gain access to hidden information, you slide into the smallest event. This is what technology does. It peels back the shadows and redeems the dazed and rumbling past. It makes reality come true. photography history metaphysics technology Don DeLillo
14764ef In the deep night of metaphysics, all cats look black. metaphysics Terry Eagleton
7d6c8a1 ...being aware that the sacred quality hidden in the experience of eroticism is something impossible for language to reach (this is also due to the impossibility of experiencing of re-experiencing anything through language), Bataille still expresses it in words. (Mishima on Bataille) mishima metaphysics Georges Bataille
a39dbc2 If it be true that there can be no metaphysics transcending human reason, it is no less true that there can be no empirical knowledge that is not already caught and limited by the a priori structure of cognition. reason archetypes cognition metaphysics C.G. Jung
29db738 In the pragmatist, streetwise climate of advanced postmodern capitalism, with its scepticism of big pictures and grand narratives, its hard-nosed disenchantment with the metaphysical, 'life' is one among a whole series of discredited totalities. We are invited to think small rather than big - ironically, at just the point when some of those out to destroy Western civilization are doing exactly the opposite. In the conflict between Western capitalism and radical Islam, a paucity of belief squares up to an excess of it. The West finds itself faced with a full-blooded metaphysical onslaught at just the historical point that it has, so to speak, philosophically disarmed. As far as belief goes, postmodernism prefers to travel light: it has beliefs, to be sure, but it does not have faith. faith religion life philosophy grand-narratives islamic-fundamentalism philosophical-scepticism western-world western-culture metaphysics islamic-terrorism belief capitalism islam islamism pragmatism postmodernism Terry Eagleton
008a465 Metaphysics in philosophy is, of course, supposed to characterize what is real - literally real. The irony is that such a conception of the real depends upon unconscious metaphors. irony nature-of-reason nature-of-theory metaphysics metaphors George Lakoff
8c74860 To deny the necessity or value of metaphysics is to assert a metaphysical principle, just as to say a religion must be without dogmas is to assert a dogma. religion philosophy metaphysics Fulton J. Sheen
b65d3cb You don't need to be a scientist to know how powerful your imagination is. motivation wisdom great-authors great-books metaphysics passages-malibu encouragement Chris Prentiss
cda7225 A professor from UBC observed that he agreed with Alexander Pope about the ultimate unreality of evil. Seen from the highest point of metaphysics. To a rational mind, nothing bad ever really happens. He was talking high-minded balls. Twaddle! I thought. I said, 'Oh? Do you mean that every gas chamber has a silver lining? gallows-humour metaphysics holocaust jewish Saul Bellow
8b647da Ordinary moments make the life. This is what she knew to be trustworthy and this is what I learned, eventually, from those years we spent together. No leaps or falls. I inhale the little drizzly details of the past and know who I am. What I failed to know before is clearer now, filtered up through time, an experience belonging to no one else, not remotely, no one, anyone, ever. I watch her use the roller to remove lint from her cloth coat. Define coat, I tell myself. Define time, define space. metaphysics moments Don DeLillo
8c6d8dd O Mproier prospathese na apotinaxei to thanato ap' to mualo tou. Mourmourise to agapemeno tou xorki, te phrase tou Loukretiou: <> All' auto den boethese. Tinaxe to kephali tou, prospathontas na dioxei autes tis makabries skepseis. Apo pou tou eikhan erthei; Ap' ten koubenta gia to thanato pou ekane me ton Nitse; Okhi, mallon den tou tis ebale o Nitse sto mualo, aplos tis apeleutherose. Panta etan ekei. Oles tis eikhe xanaskephtei. Se poia periokhe tou mualou tou omos katoikousan, otan den tis skephtotan; O Phrount eikhe dikio: prepei na uparkhei mia dexamene suntheton skepseon ston egkephalo, pera ap' te suneidese, alla se etoimoteta, etoimes opoiadepote stigme na klethoun na parelasoun ste skene tes suneidetotetas. Kai s' aute te me suneidete dexamene, den tha uparkhoun mono skepseis, alla kai sunaisthemata! Prin liges meres, mes' ap' to amaxi tou, o Mproier koitaxe to diplano amaxi. Ta duo tou aloga tripodizan trabontas piso tous ten karotsa, pou mesa tes kathontan duo epibates, ena skuthropo elikiomeno zeugari. Omos den uperkhe amaxas. Ena amaxi phantasma! O tromos ton tuphlose, ki eikhe mia stigmiaia ephidrose: ta roukha tou mesa se deuterolepta eginan mouskema. Ki epeita phaneke o odegos tou amaxiou: eikhe aplos skupsei gia na desei ten mpota tou. Sten arkhe o Mproier eikhe gelasei me ten anoete antidrase tou. Alla oso perissotero te skephtotan, toso suneidetopoiouse oti, oso orthologistes ki eleutheros dianoetes ki an etan, sto mualo tou omos krubontan pholies uperphusikou tromou. Ki okhi polu bathia: <>, briskontan deuterolepta makria ap' ten epiphaneia. A, na uperkhe mia labida na xerizosei autes tis pholies, san tis amugdales! metaphysics rationalism Irvin D. Yalom
d29743e "Philosophy is like being in a dark room and looking for a black cat. Metaphysics is like being in a dark room and looking for a black cat that isn't there. christianity religion science philosophy metaphysics hinduism theology islam Anonymous
d7bb373 You are a perfect spiritual being. Get used to that idea. wisdom conscious-awareness metaphysics passages-malibu spiritual-quotes Chris Prentiss
6cd9b10 The most flattering spin I can put on this phase of paradoxes and metaphysical tangles is that I was smart enough, at age fourteen, to destroy any fledgling hypothesis I came up with. A tentative explanation, theory, or formulation would pop up in my brain only to be attacked by what amounted to a kind of logical immune system, bent on eliminating all that was weak or defective. Which is to say that my mind had become a scene of furious predation, littered with the half-eaten corpses of vast theories and brilliant syntheses. philosophy metaphysics rationality Barbara Ehrenreich
29b7067 "The most perfect and satisfactory knowledge is that of perception but this is limited to the absolutely particular, to the individual. The comprehension of the many and the various into *one* representation is possible only through the *concept*, in other words, by omitting the differences; consequently, the concept is a very imperfect way of representing things. The particular, of course, can also be apprehended immediately as a universal, namely when it is raised to the (Platonic) *Idea*; but in this process, which I have analysed in the third book, the intellect passes beyond the limits of individuality and therefore of time; moreover, this is only an exception. These inner and essential imperfections of the intellect are further increased by a disturbance to some extent external to it but yet inevitable, namely, the influence that the *will* exerts on all its operations, as soon as that will is in any way concerned in their result. Every passion, in fact every inclination or disinclination, tinges the objects of knowledge with its colour. Most common of occurrence is the falsification of knowledge brought about by desire and hope, since they show us the scarcely possible in dazzling colours as probable and well-nigh certain, and render us almost incapable of comprehending what is opposed to it. Fear acts in a similar way; every preconceived opinion, every partiality, and, as I have said, every interest, every emotion, and every predilection of the will act in an analogous manner. philosophy schopenhauer ontology metaphysics intellect will Arthur Schopenhauer
57c030c For seven centuries the existence of Grand Unification Theories and hyperstring post-quantum physics and Core-given understanding of the universe as self-contained and boundless, without Big Bang singularities or corresponding endpoints, had pretty much eliminated any role of God--primitively anthropomorphic or sophisticatedly post-Einsteinian--even as a caretaker or pre-Creation former of rules. The modern universe, as machine and man had come to understand it, needed no Creator; in fact, allowed no Creator. Its rules allowed very little tinkering and no major revisions. It had not begun and would not end, beyond cycles of expansion and contraction as regular and self-regulated as the seasons on Old Earth science metaphysics Dan Simmons
4ff526a "In consequence of the inevitably scattered and fragmentary nature of our thinking, which has been mentioned, and of the mixing together of the most heterogeneous representations thus brought about and inherent even in the noblest human mind, we really possess only *half a consciousness*. With this we grope about in the labyrinth of our life and in the obscurity of our investigations; bright moments illuminate our path like flashes of lighting. But what is to be expected generally from heads of which even the wisest is every night the playground of the strangest and most senseless dreams, and has to take up its meditations again on emerging from these dreams? Obviously a consciousness subject to such great limitations is little fitted to explore and fathom the riddle of the world; and to beings of a higher order, whose intellect did not have time as its form, and whose thinking therefore had true completeness and unity, such an endeavor would necessarily appear strange and pitiable. In fact, it is a wonder that we are not completely confused by the extremely heterogeneous mixture of fragments of representations and of ideas of every kind which are constantly crossing one another in our heads, but that we are always able to find our way again, and to adapt and adjust everything. Obviously there must exist a simple thread on which everything is arranged side by side: but what is this? Memory alone is not enough, since it has essential limitations of which I shall shortly speak; moreover, it is extremely imperfect and treacherous. The *logical ego*, or even the *transcendental synthetic unity of apperception*, are expressions and explanations that will not readily serve to make the matter comprehensible; on the contrary, it will occur to many that "Your wards are deftly wrought, but drive no bolts asunder." philosophical-anthropology saelf schopenhauer ontology metaphysics Arthur Schopenhauer
a89cf21 "Human nature inclines us to have recourse to petition for the purpose of obtaining from another, especially from a person of higher rank, what we hope to receive from him. So prayer is recommended to men, that by it they may obtain from God what they hope to secure from Him. But the reason why prayer is necessary for obtaining something from a man is not the same as the reason for its necessity when there is question of obtaining a favor from God. Prayer is addressed to man, first, to lay bare the desire and the need of the petitioner, and secondly, to incline the mind of him to whom the prayer is addressed to grant the petition. These purposes have no place in the prayer that is sent up to God. When we pray we do not intend to manifest our needs or desires to God, for He knows all things. The Psalmist says to God: "Lord, all my desire is before Thee" and in the Gospel we are told: "Your Father knoweth that you have need of all these things." Again, the will of God is not influenced by human words to will what He had previously not willed. For, as we read in Numbers 23:19, "God is not a man, that He should lie, nor as the son of man, that He should be changed"; nor is God moved to repentance, as we are assured in 1 Kings 15:29. Prayer, then, for obtaining something from God, is necessary for man on account of the very one who prays, that he may reflect on his shortcomings and may turn his mind to desiring fervently and piously what he hopes to gain by his petition. In this way he is rendered fit to receive the favor." prayer religion god philosophy metaphysics superstition Thomas Aquinas
aa31634 Every belief that you hold manifests itself in some manner by either causing you to take some form of action or by preventing you from taking action. If you don't believe something is possible, you won't even attempt it. happiness life philosophy zen-and-the-art-of-happiness metaphysics zen Chris Prentiss
a754030 "The word Universe is made up of two Latin words- uni (meaning "one") and versus (meaning "turned into"). It literally means "one turned into." universe life metaphysics Chris Prentiss
60d3c4d The energy everything is made of is conscious. It's alive. inspiration life metaphysics energy quotes Chris Prentiss
d14d6d6 "There appears to be a fifth way, that of eminence. According to this I argue that it is incompatible with the idea of a most perfect being that anything should excel it in perfection (from the corollary to the fourth conclusion of the third chapter) . Now there is nothing incompatible about a finite thing being excelled in perfection; therefore, etc. The minor is proved from this, that to be infinite is not incompatible with being; but the infinite is greater than any finite being. Another formulation of the same is this. That to which intensive infinity is not repugnant is not all perfect unless it be infinite, for if it is finite, it can be surpassed, since infinity is not repugnant to it. But infinity is not repugnant to being, therefore the most perfect being is infinite. philosophy ontology infinity metaphysics theology infinite John Duns Scotus
f936b4b The totally alive, totally conscious, and totally aware Universe takes care of itself completely. It is totally self- reliant and totally self- sufficient. It is perfect. universe inspiration life inspirational metaphysics perfect quotes Chris Prentiss
03bdeb2 "You can take the entire world of physics with all of its macrocosm and microcosm, its quantum mechanics and nuclear physics and reduce it to one word: energy. It's all energy. Scientists say that if you can't measure it, weight it, or see it, it doesn't exist. Well, no one has ever seen energy. We can see its effects, but not "it." philosophy passages-ventura metaphysics passages-malibu energy quotes Chris Prentiss
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