Quotes

"Suppose a person of the Fourth Dimension were to visit you. What would you say to such a visitor? Would not you have him locked up? Well, that is my fate: and it is as natural for us Flatlanders to lock up a Square for preaching the Third Dimension, as it is for you Spacelanders to lock up a Cube for preaching the Fourth. Alas, how strong a family likeness runs through blind and persecuting humanity in all Dimensions! Points, Lines, Squares, Cubes, Extra-Cubes -- we are all liable to the same errors, all alike the Slaves of our respective Dimensional prejudices."

-- Edwin A. Abbott (Flatland)

"For behold, the Lord doth grant unto all nations, of their own nation and tongue, to teach his word, yea, in wisdom, all that he seeth fit that they should have; therefore, we see the Lord doth counsel in wisdom according to that which is just and true."

-- Alma 29:8

"Things are in motion, hence there is a first mover.
Things are caused, hence there is a first cause.
Things exist, hence there is a creator.
Perfect goodness exists, hence it has a sourcer.
Things are designed, hence they serve a purpose."

-- Thomas Aquinas

"Every systematic science, the humblest and the noblest alike, seems to admit of two distinct kinds of proficiency; one of which may be properly called scientific knowledge of the subject, while the other is a kind of educational acquaintance with it. For an educated man should be able to form a fair off-hand judgment as to the goodness or badness of the method used by a professor in his exposition. To be educated is in fact to be able to do this; and even the man of universal education we deem to be such in virtue of his having this ability. It will, however, of course, be understood that we only ascribe universal education to one who in his own individual person is thus critical in all or nearly all branches of knowledge, and not to one who has a like ability merely in some special subject. For it is possible for a man to have this competence in some one branch of knowledge without having it in all."

-- Aristotle

"Leisure is the basis of culture."

-- Aristotle

"For besides the disciplines of good behaviour, and the ways to eternal happiness (which are called virtures) and besides the grace of God which is in Jesus Christ, imparted only to the sons of the promise, invention has brought forth so many and such sciences and arts that the excellence of His capacity makes the rare goodness of His creation apparent...What varieties has man found out in buildings, attires, husbandry, navigation, sculpture, and imagery! What perfection has he shewn, in the shows of theatres, in taming, killing, and catching wild beasts! What millions of inventions has he against others, and for himself in poisons, arms, engines, stratagems, and the like! What thousands of medicines for the health, of meats for the throat, of means and figures to persuade, of eloquent phrases to delight, of verses for pleasure, of musical inventions and instruments! What excellent inventions are geography, arithmetic, astrology, and the rest! How large is the capacity of man, if we should stand upon particulars!"

-- St. Augustine, In Praise of Creation

"The psychological conditions which make a society or an epoch creative and consistently original have been little studied, but it seems likely that social conditions analogous to those seen in individual creativity are important. Freedom of expression and movement, lack of fear of dissent and contradiction, a willingness to break with custom, a spirit of play as well as of dedication to work, purpose on a grand scale; these are some of the attributes which a creative social entity, whether vast or tiny, can be expected to have."

-- Frank Barron, Institute of Personality Assessment and Research, University of California, Berkeley

"What was really lost when a civilization wearies and grows small is confidence, a confidence built on the order and balance that leisure makes possible."

-- Thomas Cahill, How the Irish Saved Civilization, p. 59

"As Roman culture died out and was replaced by vibrant new barbarian growths, people forgot many things -- how to read, how to think, how to build magnificently -- but they remembered and they mourned the lost peace. Call them the people of the Dark Ages if you will, but do not underestimate the desire of these early medieval men and women for the rule of law. There was, moreover, one office that survived intact from the classical to the medieval polis [society]; the office of Catholic bishop."

-- Thomas Cahill, How the Irish Saved Civilization, p. 61

5 AM -- Matins/lauds 6 AM -- Prime (sunrise)
9 AM -- Terce (3rd hour of the day)
Noon -- Sext (6th hour of the day)
3 PM -- None (9th hour of the day)
6 PM -- Vespers
7 PM -- Compline

Canonical Hours

"The discovery and exploitation of metals was, together with the inventions of numerical symbols, arithmetic and the alphabet, the most important of all ancient innovations...They did not, of course, know anything about the chemical processes involved; understanding came only thousands of years later."

-- Donald Cardwell, The Norton History of Technology, 1994

"Astrology was, after all, a reasonable science. The sun dominates life on earth; the moon has many, more subtle, influences: for example, it rules the tides. Surely, then, on commonsense grounds, the minor planets must have their own distinctive influences on the lives of men and women?"

-- Donald Cardwell, The Norton History of Technology, 1994

"The metaphysical and religious beliefs of different peoples are generally believed to influence the development of their scientific ideas. Thus the Chinese, who could observe few regularities in Nature, implicitly denied immutable laws of Nature. They did not, therefore, explain natural phenomena in terms of scientific law but rather as the undetermined outcome of the conflict between opposing powers. In a similar way they did not base their jurisprudence on the (Greek) principles of absolute law, as the Romans and , following them, the later Europeans did, but rather on the effects of juridical decisions on society as a whole. The question of guilt or innocence was subordinate to the question of the effects of any decision on social harmony."

-- Donald Cardwell, The Norton History of Technology, 1994

"Many familiar mathematical and geometrical terms -- algebra, algorithm, zero, nadir, etc. -- are Arabic in origin. The Arabs developed the chemistry and metallurgy, pioneered in the Greek-Egyptian city of Alexandria, and made notable contributions to ophthalmic optics. Arab shipbuilders had invented the mizzen mast and Arab civil engineers built complex systems of water supply and irrigation. Finally, they made significant contributions to cosmetics and to the culinary arts. In the end, however, the Arab civilization faltered and stagnated. Two very material reasons, apart from slavery, can be given. The Crusades exhausted the Islamic nations while awakening their Christian enemies and rivals to the achievements of Arabs. And a series of invasions from the east in the 13th and 14th Centuries went on to complete the ruin the Crusades had begun."

-- Donald Cardwell, The Norton History of Technology, 1994

"You have built here what you or anyone else might build, but you have destroyed what was unique in the world."

-- Charles V

"Civilization requires a modicum of material prosperity -- enough to provide a little leisure. But, far more, it requires confidence -- confidence in the society in which one lives, belief in its philosophy, belief in its laws, and confidence in one's own mental powers...Vigor, energy, vitality: all the great civilizations _ or civilizing epochs -- have had a weight of energy behind them. People sometimes think that civilization consists in fine sensibilities and good conversation and all that. These can be among the agreeable results of civilization, but they are not what make a civilization, and a society can have these amenities and yet be dead and rigid."

-- Kenneth Clark, Civilization

"At certain epochs man has felt conscious of something about himself -- body and spirit -- which was outside the day-to-day struggle for existence and the night-to-night struggle with fear; and he has felt the need to develop these qualities of thought and feeling so that they might approach as nearly as possible to an ideal of perfection -- reason, justice, physical beauty, all of them in equilibrium. He has managed to satisfy this need in various ways -- through myths, through dance and song, through systems of philosophy and through the order that he has imposed upon the visible world."

-- Kenneth Clark, Civilization

"By the Logos, the whole world is now become Athens and Greece."

-- Clement of Alexandria

"We need as many engineers as possible. As there is a lack of them, invite to this study persons of about 18 years who have already studied the necessary sciences. Relieve the parents of taxes and grant [them] sufficient means."

-- Emperor Constantine

"As it is clear that you desire war more than peace, since I cannot satisfy you either by my protestations of sincerity, or by my readiness to swear allegiance, so let it be according to your desire. I turn now and look to God alone. Should it be his will that the city be yours, where is he who can oppose it? If he should inspire you with a desire for peace, I shall be only too happy. However, I release you from all your oaths and treaties with me, and, closing the gates of my capital, I will defend my people to the last drop of my blood. Reign in happiness until the All-just, the Supreme God, calls us both before his judgement seat."

-- Constantine XI (last Byzantine Emperor)

"Accept that creativity is not something that we learn, it's something that we've forgotten but can relearn."

-- Edward de Bono

"It is more important that you should have beauty in your equations than that they should fit experiments."

-- Paul Dirac

"The most important factor in developing the theory of relativity was figuring out how to think about the problem."

-- Einstein

The only incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is incomprehensible.

-- Einstein

Religion without science is blind.
Science without religion is lame.

-- Einstein

"The more I learn, the more I realize I don't know, and the more I realize I don't know, the more I want to learn."

-- Einstein

"There are also those who think that there is nothing that they cannot obtain by relying on the magical prayers and charms thought up by some charlatan for the sake of his soul or for profit. Among the things they want are: wealth, honor, pleasure, plenty, perpetual good health, long life, a vigorous old age, and finally, a place next to Christ in heaven. However, they do not want that place until the last possible second; heavenly pleasures may come only when the pleasures of this life, hung onto with all possible tenacity, must finally depart. I can see some businessman, soldier, or judge taking one small coin from all his money and thinking that it will be proper expiation for all his perjury, lust, drunkenness, fighting, murder, fraud, lying and treachery. After doing this, he thinks he can start a new round of sinning with a new slate."

-- Erasmus in Praise of Folly

"But when the sacred band of the apostles had in various ways reached the end of their life, and the generation of those privileged to listen with their own ears to the divine wisdom had passed on, then godless error began to take shape, through the deceit of false teachers, who now that none of the apostles was left threw off the mask and attempted to counter the preaching of the truth by preaching the knowledge falsely so called."

-- Eusebius, History of the Church, p. 96

"In their eagerness to find, not a way to reject the depravity of the Jewish Scriptures, but a means of explaining it away, they resorted to interpretations which cannot be reconciled or harmonized with those scriptures."

-- Eusebius, History of the Church, p. 19.4

"When James the Righteous had suffered martyrdom like the Lord and for the same reason, Symeon the son of his uncle Clopas was appointed bishop. He being a cousin of the Lord, it was the universal demand that he should be the second."

-- Eusebius, History of the Church, p. 22.7

"When my fellow-Christians invited me to write letters to them I did so. These the devil's apostles have filled with tares, taking away some things and adding others. For them the woe is reserved. Small wonder then if some have dared to tamper even with the word of the Lord Himself, when they have conspired to mutilate my own humble efforts."

-- Eusebius quoting Dionysius,History of the Church, p. 23.11

"In his [Origin's] life he behaved like a Christian, defying the law: in his metaphysical and theological ideas he played the Greek, giving a Greek twist to foreign tales. He associated himself at all times with Plato, and was at home among the writings of...followers of Pythagoras. He made use, too, of the books of Chaeremon the Stoic and Cornutus, which taught him the allegorical method of interpreting the Greek mysteries, a method he applied to the Jewish Scriptures."

-- Eusebius, History of the Church, p. 19.4

"Of Peter one epistle, known as his first, is accepted, and this the early fathers quoted freely, as undoubtedly genuine, in their own writings. But the second Petrine epistle we have been taught to regard as uncanonical; many, however, have thought it valuable and have honored it with a place among the other Scriptures."

-- Eusebius, History of the Church, p. 3.3

"So it was that they [apostates] laid hands unblushingly on the Holy Scriptures, claiming to have corrected them...Either they do not believe that the inspired scriptures were spoken by the Holy Spirit -- if so, they are unbelievers; or they imagine that they are wiser then He -- if so, can they be other than possessed?"

-- Eusebius, History of the Church, p. 28.18

"By the phraseology also we can measure the difference between the Gospel and Epistle and the Revelation. The first two are written not only without any blunders in the use of Greek, but with remarkable skill as regards diction, logical thought, and orderly expression. It is impossible to find in them one barbarous word or solecism, or any kind of vulgarism. ..The other saw revelations and received knowledge and prophecy I will not deny; but I observe that his language and style are not really Greek: he uses barbarous idioms, and is sometimes guilty of solecisms. There is no need to pick these out now; for I have not said these things in order to pour scorn on him -- do not imagine it -- but solely to prove the dissimilarity between these books."

-- Eusebius, History of the Church, p. 25.11

"Like dazzling lights the churches were now shining all over the world, and to the limits of the human race faith in our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ was at its peak, when the demon who hates the good, sworn enemy of truth and inveterate foe of man's salvation, turned all his weapons against the Church. In earlier days he had attacked her with persecutions from without; but now that he was debarred from this, he resorted to unscrupulous impostors as instruments of spiritual corruption and ministers of destruction, and employed new tactics, contriving by every possible means that impostors and cheats, by cloaking themselves with the same name as our religion, should at one and the same time bring to the abyss of destruction every believer they could entrap, and by their own actions and endeavors turn these ignorant of the Faith away from the path that leads to the message of salvation."

-- Eusebius, History of the Church, p. 6.2

"Truth cannot be found in the book of Aristotle but in the book of Nature; and the book of Nature is written in the language of mathematics."

-- Galileo

"The various modes of worship [of the people in the empire], were all considered by the people, as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful. And thus toleration produced not only mutual indulgence, but even religious concord."

-- Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

"If a man were called to fix the period in the history of the world, during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from [AD 96 to 180] -- that is, the era of those Five Good Emperors."

-- Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Euclidean geometry a priori assumptions:

1. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line.

2. Two parallel lines never cross.

3. Two non-parallel lines cross at one and only one point.

Newton then derived that mass is a constant that relates time, length, and speed or acceleration.

Riemann Geometry a priori assumptions:

1. The shortest distance between two points is a curve.

2. Two parallel lines cross at infinity.

Einstein then derived that mass is a variable that depends upon time, length, and speed or acceleration.

-- From H. Clay Gorton, "The Transitory Nature of Telestial Knowledge

"When you seek to bring the gospel to pagans, you must be exceptionally patient. Don't offend their beliefs but assimilate them. don't pull down their temples or places of prayer, but little by little without their even knowing, you must Christianize their temples and replace their idols with the images of Christianity, their amulets with our sacred relics, their festivals with our celebrations of the Lord and of the blessed saints."

-- Pope Gregory I (590-604 A.D.)

"Humankind is just an organic slime on the surface of a rock in the universe. However, if the rate of expansion of the universe were altered slightly, that slime would not exist."

-- Steven Hawking

"And thus, according to his word the earth goeth back, and it appeareth unto man that the sun standeth still; yea, and behold, this is so; for surely it is the earth that moveth and not the sun."

-- Helaman 12:15

"One frequently sees on high mountains conches and oyster shells, sometimes embedded in rocks. These rocks in pristine times were earth, and the shell fish and oysters lived in water. Subsequently everything was inverted. Things from the bottom came to the top, and the soft became hard. Careful considerations of these facts will lead to far-reaching conclusions."

-- Chu Hsi (1131-1200)

"Those tremendously useful men, those powerful and invincible men, Marconi, Edison, Orville Wright, Burbank, who sit wrapped in purple robes of creative genius, are simply men who are capable of striking reiterated blows. They are men who reached success because they subjected themselves to the fierce fires of intellectual and physical endeavor. Men never ascend to eminence by a single leap or by growth overnight. Longfellow gave us this: 'The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.'"

-- J. Spencer Kimball

"Creativity doesn't create something out of nothing but, rather, recombines ideas that already separately exist."

-- Arthur Koestler

"Emotional catharsis and intellectual illumination are complementary aspects and indispensable elements of human creativity."

-- Arthur Koestler

"Myths grow like crystals, according to their own, recurrent pattern; but there must be a suitable core to start their growth. Mediocrities or cranks have no myth-generating power; they may create a fashion, but it soon peters out. Yet the Pythagorean vision of the world was so enduring, that it still permeates our thinking, even our vocabulary. The very term 'philosophy' is Pythagorean in origin; so is the word 'harmony' in its broader sense; and when we call numbers 'figures', we talk the jargon of the [Pythagorean] Brotherhood."

-- Arthur Koestler, The Sleepwalkers, p. 27

"Aristotle's universe was composed of a plurality of real beings that fell into an orderly hierarchy of perfection. Prime matter and substantial form were the principles of every physical body. The simplest bodies occurring in nature were the four elements, earth, air, fire and water. These combined to produce the various types of inanimate objects. Living things were more complex bodies which were united by a higher type of substantial form, called soul. Aristotle distinguished three types of souls, vegetative, sensitive, and rational, corresponding to the degrees of perfection found in plants, animals, and human beings."

-- Langford in Galileo, Science and the Church

"Looking back, we see that two principles should have been considered by the theological judges of the new astronomy. First, the traditional interpretation was to be held unless solid reasons dictated otherwise. Second, in matters of pure physical science, the Scriptures are not the criterion for establishing one system or forbidding another, since they do not teach science. The correct theological procedure would have been to combine these two principles into a practical and valid norm for solving what appear to be discrepancies between Scripture and science. Had this been done, the opinion that the Scriptures confirmed the sun's motion would have been held as more probable even after Galileo's discoveries. By staying within the realm of probability, there would have been room left for another interpretation which would have been permissible, though less probable, namely, that the Scripture texts in no way represented scientific affirmations and thus were irrelevant to the scientific question.

-- Jerome J. Langford in Galileo, Science and the Church

"The most difficult aim of painting is to depict the intention of man's soul."

-- Leonardo da Vinci

"Those sciences are vain and filled with errors which are not borne of experiment, the mother of all certainty."

-- Leonardo da Vinci

"An original is a creation motivated by desire. Any reproduction of an original is motivated by necessity... It is marvelous that we are the only species that creates gratuitous forms. To create is divine; to reproduce is human."

-- Ray Man (US photographer, 1890-1976)

"What you are, I once was; what I am, you will become."

-- Statement over the skeleton under Masaccio's The Holy Trinity with the Virgin and St. John

"I can always have you with me in my mind -- why should we not have our Lord always before us in our minds....If we had seen Him in the flesh we should not have known Him any better, perhaps not so well." .... "Here [Ephesians 6] is more about family relations. There are things which have meanings so deep that if we follow on to know them we shall be led into great mysteries of divinity. If we reverence them, we shall even see beyond their first aspect a spiritual meaning, for God speaks to us more plainly in these bonds of our life than in anything that we can understand."

-- James Clerk Maxwell

"The creators breathed into their nostrils the breath of life and men and women became living souls. We don't know exactly how their coming into this world happened, and when we're able to understand it the Lord will tell us."

-- David O. McKay, Letter to Professor William Lee Stokes, 15 February 1957

"Rather than thinking about carving a statue out of stone, I picture in my imagination the completed work, in all of its exquisite detail. I then project the picture from my mind into the stone, where it becomes entombed, imprisoned within the stone. My job as the artist is not to carve an image into the stone but to free it from the stone. And this I do with passion because I know the image is already there, alive and breathing. The process is quite simple. That which I desire, I must first imagine. That which I can imagine, I create."

-- Michelangelo

"Fortune favors the prepared mind."

-- Louis Pasteur

"I have been looking for spontaneous generation for twenty years without discovering it. No, I do not judge it impossible. But what allows you to make it the origin of life? You place matter before life and you decide that matter has existed for all eternity. How do you know that the incessant progress of science will not compel scientists to consider that life has existed during eternity, and not matter? You pass from matter to life because your intelligence of today cannot conceive things otherwise. How do you know that in ten thousand years one will not consider it more likely that matter has emerged from life?"

-- Louis Pasteur

"The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of them."

-- Linus Pauling

In music, we are less surprised when a child prodigy can play with excellent technique than when the child can compose with great depth and understanding of music. What about the child prodigy in physics; which is more surprising, the learning of the techniques or an understanding of the nature of physics?

One of Plato's critics said: "I see particular horses, but not horseness." Plato answered: "That is because you have eyes but no intelligence."

"It now remains for us to see how a prince should govern his conduct towards his subjects or friends. ...The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous. Therefore if a prince wants to maintain his rule he must learn how not to be virtuous, and to make use of this or not according to need."

-- Machiavelli, The Prince

"The dome [of Hagia Sophia] is a work admirable and terrifying...seeming not to rest on the masonry below it, but to be suspended by a chain of gold from the height of the sky."

-- Procopius (Byzantine historian of the 5th Century)

"When one enters this building [Hagia Sophia] to pray, he feels that it is not the work of human power....The soul, lifting itself to the sky, realizes that here God is close by, and that He takes delight in this, His chosen home."

-- Procopius (Byzantine historian)

"Concerning the gods, I have no means of knowing whether they exist or not, nor of what form they are; for there are many obstacles to such knowledge, including the obscurity of the subject and the shortness of human life."

-- Protagoras (a Sophist)

"A fanatic is someone who redoubles his efforts after he has forgotten his aim."

-- George Santyana

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself; therefore, all progress depends upon the unreasonable man."

-- George Bernard Shaw

Socrates taught: Happiness is the consequence not of physical or external circumstances, of wealth or power or reputation, but of living a life that is good for the soul. Yet to live a genuinely good life, one must know what is the nature and essence of the good.

-- Richard Tarnas in The Passion of the Western Mind

God became man so that man can become God.

-- Saint Authenacious

Results Related to Present Psychological Status:

1. Our more creative subjects are more autonomous individuals, and they see themselves as more different from their colleagues than do our less creative subjects.

2. Our more creative subjects have attitudes which suggest that they strive for more distant goals than do our less creative subjects.

3. Our more creative subjects have more integrative attitudes than do our less creative subjects.

4. Our more creative subjects are more cautious and realistic than our less creative subjects.

5. Our more creative subjects are more consistent in their desires for rewards than are our less creative subjects.

6. Our more creative subjects have a more differntiated value-hierarchy than do our less creative subjects.

7. More of our creative subjects regard themselves as assertive, authoritative, and possessing leadership ability. More of our less creative subjects, on the other hand, regard themselves as acquiescent and submissive.

-- Morris I Sein, New York University

"The most important thing you learn in school is how to learn."

-- Brent Strong (and many others)

"Creativity is seeing what everybody else has seen and thinking what nobody has thought."

-- Albert Szant-Gyrgyi

"These [organisms] lived and died, age after age, while the earth was yet unfit for human habitation."

-- James E. Talmage, The Earth and Man, 1931, page 2.

From the Pythagorean perspective, the fundamentals of existence are the archetypal Forms or Ideas, which constitute the intangible substrate of all that is tangible. The true structure of the world is revealed not by the senses, but by the intellect, which in its highest state has direct access to the Ideas governing reality. All knowledge presupposes the abstraction or imaginary metaphor for the concrete world, is here considered to be the very basis of reality, that which determines its order and renders it knowable. To this end, Pythagorus and later Plato declared direct experience of the transcendent Ideas to be the philosopher's primary goal and ultimate destination.

-- Tarnas, The Passion of the Western Mind, p 12.

The belief that the universe possesses and is governed according to a comprehensive regulating intelligence, and that this same intelligence is reflected in the human mind, rendering it capable of knowing the cosmic order, was one of the most characteristic and recurring principles in the central tradition of Hellenic thought.

-- Tarnas, The Passion of the Western Mind, p 47.

"To be is to do."

-- Socrates/Plato

"To do is to be."

-- Descartes

"Do be do be do."

-- Sinatra

"A close study of each of these dead civilizations indicates that they usually started on their road to glory because of fortuitous circumstances exploited by a strong, inspiring leader. The nation then carried on for a period under its own momentum. Finally, creeping vanity led the people to become enamored of their undisputed superiority; they became so impressed with their past achievements that they lost interest in working for further change. Soon their sons, coddled in the use of all the great things their fathers and grandfathers had pioneered, became as helpless as new-born babes when faced with the harsh reality of an aggressive and changing world."

-- Eugene K. Von Fange, Professional Creativity

"When the existence of the Church is threatened, she is released from the commandments of morality. With unity as the end, the use of every means is sanctified, even cunning, treachery, violence, simony, prison, death. For all order is for the sake of the community, and the individual must be sacrificed to the common good."

-- Dietrich Von Nieheim, Bishop of Verden, 1411 AD

"How foolish men are! It is their lot to suffer, but because of their own folly they bring upon themselves sufferings over and above what is fated for them. And then they blame the gods."

-- Homer (The quote is dialogue from Zeus in the Odyssey)