Finite Quotes - Page 3

• Infinite growth of material consumption in a finite world is an impossibility.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Courage, Organization, Simplicity

  E.F. Schumacher (1975). “Small is Beautiful”

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• The known is finite, the unknown infinite; intellectually we stand on an islet in the midst of an illimitable ocean of inexplicability. Our business in every generation is to reclaim a little more land, to add something to the extent and the solidity of our possessions.

  Thomas Huxley

  Ocean, Land, Generations

  Thomas Henry Huxley “Selected Works of Thomas Henry Huxley”, Library of Alexandria

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• Our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite.

  Karl Popper

  Learning, Ignorance, Knowledge

  Lecture to British Academy, 20 Jan. 1960, in Proceedings of the British Academy (1960) vol. 46, p. 69

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• The progress of mathematics can be viewed as progress from the infinite to the finite.

  Gian-Carlo Rota

  Science, Progress, Infinite

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• A finite world can support only a finite population; therefore, population growth must eventually equal zero.

  Garrett Hardin

  Zero, Support, Growth

  Garrett James Hardin (1972). “Exploring new ethics for survival: the voyage of the spaceship Beagle”, Viking Adult

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• We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Motivational, Positive

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• The finite is annihilated in the presence of the infinite, and becomes a pure nothing. So our spirit before God, so our justice before divine justice.

  Blaise Pascal

  Divine Justice, Spirit, Infinite

  Blaise Pascal (2013). “Pensées”, p.65, Courier Corporation

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• Only I discern Infinite passion, and the pain Of finite hearts that yearn.

  Robert Browning

  Pain, Passion, Heart

  'Two in the Campagna' (1855) st. 12

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• Man's unhappiness, as I construe, comes of his greatness; it is because there is an Infinite in him, which with all his cunning he cannot quite bury under the Finite.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Happiness, Greatness, Men

  'Sartor Resartus' (1834) bk. 2, ch. 9

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• Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.

  Albert Einstein

  Funny, Hilarious, Education

  Albert Einstein (2015). “Bite-Size Einstein: Quotations on Just About Everything from the Greatest Mind of the Twentieth Century”, p.32, St. Martin's Press

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• In a finite world this means that the per capita share of the world's goods must steadily decrease.

  Garrett Hardin

  Mean, Environmental, World

  Garrett James Hardin (1995). “The Immigration Dilemma: Avoiding the Tragedy of the Commons”, F A I R-Federation for American Immigration Reform

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• The first attempt at a response: there must have been a fall, a decline, and the road to salvation can only be the return of the sensible finite into the intelligible infinite.

  Hans Urs von Balthasar

  Fall, Aggravation, Firsts

  Hans Urs von Balthasar (1993). “My Work: In Retrospect”, p.99, Ignatius Press

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• There has been a tendency through the years for reason and moderation to prevail as long as things are going tolerably well or as long as our problems seem clear and finite and manageable.

  J. William Fulbright

  Years, Long, Problem

  J. William Fulbright (2011). “The Arrogance of Power”, p.279, Random House

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• But the universe, as a collection of finite things, presents itself as a kind of island situated in a pure vacuity to which time, regarded as a series of mutually exclusive moments, is nothing and does nothing.

  Muhammad Iqbal

  Islands, Doe, Kind

  Sir Muhammad Iqbal (2000). “The religious thought in Islam”

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• The known is finite, the unknown infinite; spiritually we find ourselves on a tiny island in the middle of a boundless ocean of the inexplicable. It is our task, from generation to generation, to drain a small amount of additional land.

  Thomas Huxley

  Ocean, Islands, Tasks

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• Civilization is the process of reducing the infinite to the finite.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

  Art, Philosophy, Civilization

  Oliver Wendell Holmes, Richard A. Posner (1997). “The Essential Holmes: Selections from the Letters, Speeches, Judicial Opinions, and Other Writings of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.”, p.9, University of Chicago Press

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• Our self (Soul), as a form of God's joy, is deathless. For his joy is amritham, eternal bliss. We know that the life of a Soul, which is finite in its expression and infinite in its principle, must go through the portals of death in its journey to realize the infinite.

  Rabindranath Tagore

  God, Journey, Self

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• Astronomers say the universe is finite, which is a comforting thought for those people who can't remember where they leave things.

  Woody Allen

  Science, People, Comforting

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• What are you doing for others?

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Kings, Helping Others, Volunteer

  Jim Haskins, James Haskins, Martin Luther King (Jr.) (1992). “I have a dream: the life and words of Martin Luther King, Jr”, Millbrook Pr

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• I don't want the horse to get trained, because training the horse is absolutely finite. But if you get the horse to where he operates as if to be your legs, an extension of you, you've far-exceeded that whole training notion.

  Buck Brannaman

  Horse, Training, Legs

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• Wisdom views with an indifferent eye all finite joys, all blessings born to die.

  Hannah More

  Wisdom, Eye, Blessing

  Hannah More (1827). “The Works of Hannah More: With a Sketch of Her Life”, p.112

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• There are no accidents in my philosophy. Every effect must have its cause. The past is the cause of the present, and the present will be the cause of the future. All these are links in the endless chain stretching from the finite to the infinite.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Philosophy, Past, President

  Abraham Lincoln, Caroline Thomas Harnsberger (1950). “The Lincoln treasury”

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• When politicians & economists understand we live in a finite world & act accordingly then a better future has a chance

  Phil Harding

  World, Chance, Politician

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• There is nothing that is so wonderfully created as the human soul. There is something of God in it. We are infinite in the future, though we are finite in the past.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Past, Soul, Infinite

  Henry Ward Beecher, Truman Jeremiah Ellinwood (1872). “The Original Plymouth Pulpit: Sermons of Henry Ward Beecher in Plymouth Church, Brooklyn”, p.169

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• Anyone who believes in indefinite growth on a physically finite planet is either mad or an economist

  David Attenborough

  Believe, Mad, Growth

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