“My Lord, your own wisdom has taught me to aspire to One even more great, more beautiful, and more closely approximate to Perfection than yourself. As you yourself, superior to all Flatland forms, combine many Circles in One, so doubtless there is One above you who combines many Spheres in One Supreme Existence, surpassing even the Solids of Spaceland.”

— Edwin Abbott Abbott , book Flatland

Source: Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884), PART II: OTHER WORLDS, Chapter 19. How, Though the Sphere Showed Me Other Mysteries of Spaceland, I Still Desired More; and What Came of It
Context: My Lord, your own wisdom has taught me to aspire to One even more great, more beautiful, and more closely approximate to Perfection than yourself. As you yourself, superior to all Flatland forms, combine many Circles in One, so doubtless there is One above you who combines many Spheres in One Supreme Existence, surpassing even the Solids of Spaceland. And even as we, who are now in Space, look down on Flatland and see the insides of all things, so of a certainty there is yet above us some higher, purer region, whither thou dost surely purpose to lead me — O Thou Whom I shall always call, everywhere and in all Dimensions, my Priest, Philosopher, and Friend — some yet more spacious Space, some more dimensionable Dimensionality, from the vantage-ground of which we shall look down together upon the revealed insides of Solid things, and where thine own intestines, and those of thy kindred Spheres, will lie exposed to the view of the poor wandering exile from Flatland, to whom so much has already been vouchsafed.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "My Lord, your own wisdom has taught me to aspire to One even more great, more beautiful, and more closely approximate t…" by Edwin Abbott Abbott?

Edwin Abbott Abbott 87

British theologian and author 1838–1926

Related quotes

“Assuming her most gracious manner, my Wife advanced towards the Stranger, "Permit me, Madam, to feel and be felt by— " then, suddenly recoiling, "Oh! it is not a Woman, and there are no angles either, not a trace of one. Can it be that I have so misbehaved to a perfect Circle?" "I am indeed, in a certain sense a Circle," replied the Voice, "and a more perfect Circle than any in Flatland; but to speak more accurately, I am many Circles in one."”

Edwin Abbott Abbott book Flatland

</p>
Source: Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884), PART II: OTHER WORLDS, Chapter 15. Concerning a Stranger from Spaceland

“One has so many more opinions about what has gone wrong than about what is perfect.”

Nick Hornby book Songbook

Source: 31 Songs

“No-one was more cherished, no-one tortured
Me more, not
Even the one who betrayed me to torture,
Not even the one who caressed me and forgot.”

Anna Akhmatova (1889–1966) Russian modernist poet

"I Don't Know If You're Alive Or Dead" (1915)

“The country [ Brittany ] is very beautiful and painterly one see stimulating color tones; but the more abstract one works, the more one transforms the sketch into combinations.”

Jacoba van Heemskerck (1876–1923) Dutch painter

(translation from German, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018, original version, written by Jacoba in German:) Das land [Bretagne]] is sehr schön und farbig gibt es reizige Töne; je mehr abstract man aber arbeitet, je mehr man die Skizze zu Combinationen umarbeitet.
note on a postcard to Herwarth Walden [initiator of Der 'Sturm' in Germany], 14 May 1914; as cited by Arend H. Huussen Jr. in Jacoba van Heemskerck, kunstenares van het Expressionisme, Haags Gemeentemuseum The Hague, 1982, p. 18
1910's

“Don't you see that's just one of the consequences of all this? There will be more Mercers. So many more. So many people who do't want to be found but who will be. So any people who wanted no part of all this. That's what's new. There used to be the option of opting out. But now that's over. Completion is the end. We're closing the circle around everyone - it's a totalitarian nightmare.”

Dave Eggers book The Circle

Kalden/Ty, to Mae; p. 486
The Circle (2013)

“The secret to feeling great about yourself is not to be found in searching for people who are less than you and then show yourself superior to them, but in searching for people who are more than you and then show yourself worthy of their company.”

Erik Naggum (1965–2009) Norwegian computer programmer

Re: CLL statistics for 2002 (was: Looking for Lisp compiler) http://www.xach.com/naggum/articles/3250612397276876@naggum.no.html (Usenet article).
Usenet articles, Miscellaneous