Finite Quotes - Page 11

• Zen, in its essence is the art of seeing into the nature of one's own being, and it points the way from bondage to freedom. By making us drink right from the fountain of life it liberates us from all the yokes under which we finite beings are usually suffering in this world.

  D.T. Suzuki

  Art, Essence, Suffering

  D.T. Suzuki (2011). “Essays in Zen Buddhism”, p.8, Souvenir Press

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• Far be it from us to doubt that all number is known to Him 'Whose understanding is infinite' (Ps. 147:5). The infinity of number, though there be no numbering of infinite numbers, is yet not incomprehensible by Him Whose understanding is infinite. And thus, if everything which is comprehended is defined or made finite by the comprehension of him who knows it, then all infinity is in some ineffable way made finite to God, for it is comprehensible by His knowledge.

  Saint Augustine

  Christian, Numbers, Understanding

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• For too long we have tried to consume our
  way to prosperity. Look at the cost: polluted
  lands and oceans, climate change, growing
  scarcity of resources from food to land to fresh
  water, rampant inequality. We need to invent a
  new model; a model that offers growth and social inclusion... that is more respectful of the
  planet's finite resources. Nature has been kind
  to human beings, but we have not been kind to
  nature.

  Ban Ki-moon

  Ocean, Land, Water

  Ban Ki-moon's Press Conference on Rio+20, www.un.org. June 6, 2012.

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• Man is spirit. But what is spirit? Spirit is the self. But what is the self? The self is a relation which relates itself to itself.

  Soren Kierkegaard

  Men, Self, Two

  "The Sickness Unto Death". Book by Søren Kierkegaard, "A. That Despair is the Sickness unto Death", 1849.

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• For man to be able to live he must either not see the infinite, or have such an explanation of the meaning of life as will connect the finite with the infinite.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Men, Able, Meaning Of Life

  Count Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy, Leo Tolstoy (2006). “A Confession: Easyread Edition”, p.55, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• Our population and our use of the finite resources of planet Earth are growing exponentially, along with our technical ability to change the environment for good or ill. But our genetic code still carries the selfish and aggressive instincts that were of survival advantage in the past. It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand or million. Our only chance of long term survival, is not to remain inward looking on planet Earth, but to spread out into space.

  Stephen Hawking

  Selfish, Past, Years

  "Abandon Earth - Or Face Extinction". bigthink.com.

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• In India there was a sense of time that does not tick with modern clocks, just as there is a knowledge that is not gained through science and empirical experiments. In the modern West knowledge is of objective, finite particulars in historical time. India recognizes that kind of useful information: it calls it "lower knowledge." Higher knowledge (paravidya) proceeds differently, or rather it doesn't proceed at all but enters history full-blown on the morning of a new creation.

  Huston Smith

  Morning, Science, Historical

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• Our minds are finite and far from noble. Knowing their limits can help us to become better reasoners.

  Gary Marcus

  Knowing, Mind, Noble

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• If you want to reach the infinite, then explore every aspect of the finite.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Garden, Religion, Want

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• Even as the finite encloses an infinite series
  And in the unlimited limits appear,
  So the soul of immensity dwells in minutia
  And in the narrowest limits no limit in here.
  What joy to discern the minute in infinity!
  The vast to perceive in the small, what divinity!

  Jacob Bernoulli

  Education, Math, Joy

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• God is infinite; and the laws of nature, like nature itself, are finite. These methods of working, therefore, - which correspond to the physical element in us, - do not exhaust His agency. There is a boundless residue of disengaged energy beyond.

  James Martineau

  Nature, Agency, Law

  "Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers" by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, (p. 431), 1895.

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• God is a wider consciousness than we are, a pure intelligence, spiritual life and actuality. He is neither one nor many, neither man nor spirit. Such predicates belong only to finite beings.

  Joseph Alexander Leighton

  Spiritual, Men, Consciousness

  Joseph Alexander Leighton (1901). “Typical Modern Conceptions of God: Or, The Absolute of German Romantic Idealism and of English Evolutionary Agnosticism, with a Constructive Essay”

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• Personalism's insistence that only personality-finite and infinite-is ultimately real strengthened me in two convictions: it gave me metaphysical and philosophical grounding for the idea of a personal God, and it gave me a metaphysical basis for the dignity and worth of all human personality.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Wisdom, Real, Philosophical

  Martin Luther King (Jr.), Alex Ayres (1993). “The Wisdom of Martin Luther King, Jr”, Plume

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• We are many, many selves. We're not just a finite being. The selves don't necessarily speak in words. But they are you.

  Frederick Lenz

  Self, Speak, Mysticism

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• All men desire their own perfect adjustment, but they desire it, being finite men, on their own terms.

  Walter Lippmann

  Men, Perfect, Desire

  Walter Lippmann (2011). “The Phantom Public”, p.161, Transaction Publishers

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• The infinite, absolute character of Virtue has passed into a finite, conditional one; it is no longer a worship of the Beautiful and Good; but a calculation of the Profitable.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Beautiful, Character, Worship

  Thomas Carlyle (2014). “The Selected Works of Thomas Carlyle”, p.23, Lulu.com

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• Even the standard example of ancient nonsense - the debate about angels on pinheads - makes sense once you realize that theologians were not discussing whether five or eighteen would fit, but whether a pin could house a finite or an infinite number.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Angel, Numbers, House

  Stephen Jay Gould (2010). “The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History”, p.149, W. W. Norton & Company

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• Man always worships something; always he sees the Infinite shadowed forth in something finite; and indeed can and must so see it in any finite thing, once tempt him well to fix his eyes thereon.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Eye, Men, Worship

  Thomas Carlyle (1881). “Critical and Miscellaneous Essays: Collected and Republished”, p.116

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• On your journey, remember there is no end. That is true knowledge. There is no final knowledge. There is no final enlightenment, that is a very finite, human way of seeing things.

  Frederick Lenz

  Inspirational, Buddhism, Journey

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• Ramakrishna didn't suddenly become enlightened. We had years of him meditating, seeking, crying to Mother Kali, going in and out of samadhi; but after many years of this process, he was enlightened. He was no longer a finite individual.

  Frederick Lenz

  Mother, Years, Kali

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• Never be satisfied with a first draft. In fact, never be satisfied with your own stuff at all, until you're certain it's as good as your finite powers can enable it to be.

  Rose Tremain

  Writing, Stuff, Firsts

  "Ten rules for writing fiction (part two)". www.theguardian.com. February 19, 2010.

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• God is consistent with his nature and declared purposes in Scripture, but he is not limited to our finite understanding of him or the ways we think he should work.

  Craig S. Keener

  Thinking, Understanding, Purpose

  Craig S. Keener (2001). “Gift and Giver: The Holy Spirit for Today”, p.30, Baker Academic

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• I understand and sympathize with the reasonable needs of a reasonable number of people on a finite continent. All life depends upon other life. But what is happening today, in North America, is not rational use but irrational massacre. Man the Pest, multiplied to the swarming stage, is attacking the remaining forests like a plague of locusts on a field of grain.

  Edward Abbey

  Men, Numbers, America

  "The Journey Home: Some Words in Defense of the American West". Book by Edward Abbey ("The Crooked Wood", p. 208), 1977.

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• The Infinite alone exists and is Real; the finite is passing and false. The Original Whim in the Beyond caused the apparent descent of the Infinite into the realm of the seeming finite. This is the Divine Mystery and Divine Game in which Infinite Consciousness for ever plays on all levels of finite consciousness.

  Meher Baba

  Real, Games, Play

  "The Everything and the Nothing". Book by Meher Baba, 1963.

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• Sisters define their rivalry in terms of competition for the gold cup of parental love. It is never perceived as a cup which runneth over, rather a finite vessel from which the more one sister drinks, the less is left over for the others.

  Elizabeth Fishel

  Friendship, Competition, Gold

  Elizabeth Fishel (1997). “Sisters: Shared Histories, Lifelong Ties”, Red Wheel

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