Finite Quotes - Page 8

• God created infinity, and man, unable to understand infinity, had to invent finite sets.

  Gian-Carlo Rota

  Education, Men, Statistics

  Mark Kac, Gian-Carlo Rota, Jacob T. Schwartz (2009). “Discrete Thoughts: Essays on Mathematics, Science and Philosophy”, p.62, Springer Science & Business Media

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• For the most part, it is true, ordinary men and women regard mathematics with energetic distaste, counting its concepts as rhapsodic as cauliflower. This is a mistake-there is no other word. Where else can the restless human mind find means to tie the infinite in a finite bow?

  David Berlinski

  Mistake, Mean, Men

  David Berlinski (2000). “The Advent of the Algorithm: The Idea that Rules the World”, Houghton Mifflin

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• I am tired of the litany
  of months, September October
  I am tired of the way the seasons
  keep changing, mimicking
  the seasons of the flesh
  which are real and finite.

  Linda Pastan

  Real, Tired, Flesh

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• It is completely incomprehensible to us how God can reveal himself and to some extent make himself known in created beings: eternity in time, immensity in space, infinity in finite, immutability in change, being in becoming, the all, as it were, in that which is nothing. This mystery cannot be comprehended; it can only be gratefully acknowledged.

  Herman Bavinck

  Space, Infinity, Becoming

  Herman Bavinck, John Bolt, John Vriend (2004). “Reformed Dogmatics: God and Creation”, p.49, Baker Academic

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• Although your time and attention are finite, the demands on your time and attention are infinite.

  Merlin Mann

  Marketing, Attention, Demand

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• While most of those who hold that the whole heaven is finite say that the earth lies at the center, the philosophers of Italy, the so-called Pythagoreans, assert the contrary. They say that in the middle there is fire, and that the earth is one of the stars, and by its circular motion round the center produces night and day.

  Aristotle

  Stars, Lying, Night

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• He who knows his soul knows this truth:
  " I am beyond everything finite; I I now see that the Spirit, alone in a space with Its ever-new joy, has expressed Itself as the vast body of nature.
  I am the stars,
  I am the waves,
  I am the Life of all,
  I am the laughter within all hearts,
  I am the smile on the faces of the flowers and in each soul.
  I am the Wisdom and Power that sustain all creation. "

  Paramahansa Yogananda

  Stars, Laughter, Flower

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• It is not given to man to know the whole Truth. His duty lies in living up to the truth as he sees it, and in doing so, to resort to the purest means, i.e., to non-violence. God alone knows absolute truth. Therefore, I have often said, Truth is God. It follows that man, a finite being, cannot know absolute truth. Nobody in this world possesses absolute truth. This is God's attribute alone. Relative truth is all we know. Therefore, we can only follow the truth as we see it. Such pursuit of truth cannot lead anyone astray.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Truth, Lying, Mean

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• Words are finite expressions of the infinite mind.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Expression, Mind Blowing, Infinite

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• Man the infinite dreamer, dreaming finite dreams!

  Swami Vivekananda

  Dream, Men, Infinite

  Swami Vivekananda (2016). “My Life and Mission”, p.21, Advaita Ashrama (A publication branch of Ramakrishna Math, Belur Math)

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• The cause being finite, the effect must be finite. If the cause is eternal the effect can be eternal, but all these causes, doing good work, and all other things, are only finite causes, and as such cannot produce infinite result.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Causes, Infinite, Good Work

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “Practical Vedanta Philosophy”, p.20, editionNEXT.com

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• Growth has failed on its own terms. You can't have infinite growth in a world of finite resources.

  Andrew Simms

  Growth, World, Infinite

  "Economists start to consider that money can't buy happiness" by Ashley Seager, Heather Stewart, www.theguardian.com. January 9, 2010.

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• So he that despairs, limits an Infinite Power to a Finite Apprehension, and measures Providence by his own little, contracted Model.

  Robert South

  Despair, Littles, Limits

  "Twelve Sermons Preached Upon Several Occasions".

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• A Christian, who realizes he has been made in the image of the Creator God and is therefore meant to be creative on a finite level, should certainly have more understanding of his responsibility to treat God's creation with sensitivity, and should develop his talents to do something to beautify his little spot on the earth's surface.

  Edith Schaeffer

  Christian, Responsibility, Creator God

  Edith Schaeffer (1972). “Hidden art”

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• The less you demand total fulfillment from relationships, the more you can appreciate them for the beautiful tapestries they are, in which absolute and relative, perfect and imperfect, infinite and finite are marvelously interwoven. You can stop fighting the shifting tides of relative love and learn to ride them instead. And you come to appreciate more fully the simple, ordinary heroism involved in opening to another person and forging real intimacy.

  John Welwood

  Beautiful, Real, Fighting

  John Welwood (2005). “Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships: Healing the Wound of the Heart”, p.52, Shambhala Publications

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• And that, quite simply, is the issue. We live in a finite world with finite resources. Although it may sometimes seem quite big, earth is really very small - a tiny blue and green oasis of life in a cold universe.

  David Suzuki

  Oasis, Blue, Issues

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• All the goods of this world...are finite and limited and radically incapable of satisfying the desire that perpetually burns within us for an infinite and perfect good.

  Simone Weil

  Perfect, Desire, World

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• The world of imagination is the world of eternity. It is the divine bosom into which we shall all go after the death of the vegetated [i.e. mortal] body. This world of imagination is infinite and eternal, whereas the world of generation is finite and temporal. There exist in that eternal world the eternal realities of everything which we see reflected in this vegetable glass of nature.

  William Blake

  Reality, Glasses, Vegetables

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• THE ARTISTIC IMAGE IS ALWAYS A METONYM, WHERE ONE THING IS SUBSTITUTED FOR ANOTHER, THE SMALLER FOR THE GREATER. TO TELL OF WHAT IS LIVING, THE ARTIST USES SOMETHING DEAD; TO SPEAK OF THE INFINITE, HE SHOWS THE FINITE.

  Andrei Tarkovsky

  Art, Use, Speak

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• The liberation of the human mind has never been furthered by dunderheads; it has been furthered by gay fellows who heaved dead cats into sanctuaries and then went roistering down the highways of the world, proving to all men that doubt, after all, was safe - that the god in the sanctuary was finite in his power and hence a fraud. One horse-laugh is worth ten thousand syllogisms. It is not only more effective; it is also vastly more intelligent.

  H. L. Mencken

  Horse, Cat, Gay

  "Clinical Notes". The American Mercury (January 1924), p. 75; later quoted in H. L. Mencken "Prejudices: Fourth Series", 1924.

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• Computers are finite machines; when given the same input, they always produce the same output.

  Greg Perry

  Machines, Input, Computer

  Greg Perry, Dean Miller (2013). “Beginning Programming in 24 Hours, Sams Teach Yourself”, p.8, Sams Publishing

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• Everything which relates to God is infinite. We must therefore, while we keep our hearts humble, keep our aims high. Our highest services are indeed but finite, imperfect. But as God is unlimited in goodness, He should have our unlimited love.

  Hannah More

  God, Heart, Humble

  Hannah More (1840). “Miscellaneous Works: Tragedies. Miscellaneous poems. Hymns and ballads. Sacred Dramas. Coelebs. Practical piety. Moriana”, p.676

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• All finite things reveal infinitude: The mountain with its singular bright shade Like the blue shine on freshly frozen snow, The after-light upon ice-burdened pines; Odor of basswood upon a mountain slope, A scene beloved of bees; Silence of water above a sunken tree: The pure serene of memory of one man,- A ripple widening from a single stone Winding around the waters of the world.

  Theodore Roethke

  Memories, Men, Shine On

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• Economic growth won't feed a growing population living on this finite planet

  Phil Harding

  Growth, Population, Growing

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• The basic anxiety, the anxiety of a finite being about the threat of non-being, cannot be eliminated. It belongs to existence itself.

  Paul Tillich

  Anxiety, Existence, Threat

  Paul Tillich (1968). “The Courage To Be”

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