“Science itself had been crowded so close to the edge of the abyss that its attempts to escape were as metaphysical as the leap.”

— Henry Adams

The Education of Henry Adams (1907)

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Henry Adams 311

journalist, historian, academic, novelist 1838–1918

John Fowles book The Magus

Source: The Magus

“On Edge of abyss.”

Silvio Berlusconi (1936) Italian politician

On Italy, as reported in "Italy on 'edge of abyss', says Silvio Berlusconi, offering a hand" in The Guardian (9 December 2012) http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/09/italy-edge-abyss-silvio-berlusconi
2012

“Men often wondered at the stubborn Incompletibility of these two Sciences; each followed its own business by itself; there was a want everywhere, nothing would suit rightly with either. From the very first, attempts were made to unite them, as everything about them indicated relationship; but every attempt failed; the one or the other Science still suffered in these attempts, and lost its essential character.”

Novalis (1772–1801) German poet and writer

Pupils at Sais (1799)
Context: Common Logic is the Grammar of the higher Speech, that is, of Thought; it examines merely the relations of ideas to one another, the Mechanics of Thought, the pure Physiology of ideas. Now logical ideas stand related to one another, like words without thoughts. Logic occupies itself with the mere dead Body of the Science of Thinking. — Metaphysics, again, is the Dynamics of Thought; treats of the primary Powers of Thought; occupies itself with the mere Soul of the Science of Thinking. Metaphysical ideas stand related to one another, like thoughts without words. Men often wondered at the stubborn Incompletibility of these two Sciences; each followed its own business by itself; there was a want everywhere, nothing would suit rightly with either. From the very first, attempts were made to unite them, as everything about them indicated relationship; but every attempt failed; the one or the other Science still suffered in these attempts, and lost its essential character. We had to abide by metaphysical Logic, and logical Metaphysic, but neither of them was as it should be.

“I love you, with a love so great that it simply couldn't keep growing inside my heart, but had to leap out and reveal itself in all its magnitude.”

Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary

Source: The Diary of a Young Girl

“Ah, what balance is needed at
the edges of such an abyss.”

R.S. Thomas (1913–2000) Welsh poet

"Threshold", p. 110
Between Here and Now (1981)
Context: Ah, what balance is needed at
the edges of such an abyss.
I am left alone on the surface
of a turning planet. What to do but, like Michelangelo’s
Adam, put my hand
out into unknown space,
hoping for the reciprocating touch?

“A science that observes the laws of causation, and so is value-free, threatens human freedom and man’s religious, ethical, and legal responsibility. The philosophy of values raised to that challenge, in the sense that it opposed a sphere of values, as a realm of ideal valuations, to a sphere of being that was only causally understood. It was an attempt to assert the human being as a free, responsible creature, indeed not in itself, but at least, in its valuation, what one called value. That attempt was put forth as a positivistic substitute for the metaphysical.”

Carl Schmitt (1888–1985) German jurist, political theorist and professor of law

"The Tyranny of Values" (1959)

“There is no greater mistake than to try to leap an abyss in two jumps.”

David Lloyd George (1863–1945) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

[Lloyd George, David, David Lloyd George, War Memoirs, New, 1, 1938, Odhams Press Limited, London, 445, XXIV: Disintegration of the Liberal Party]
War Memoirs

“Life is a traveling to the edge of knowledge, then a leap taken.”

D.H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter

“When the crowd acclaims its favorites it applauds itself.”

John Lancaster Spalding (1840–1916) Catholic bishop

Source: Aphorisms and Reflections (1901), p. 208

“She had never been so close to anybody. It was as if they were one being, together, not predator and prey, but partners in a dance. Poppy-and-James.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Night World, No. 1

“Science itself had been crowded so close to the edge of the abyss that its attempts to escape were as metaphysical as the leap.”

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