“A breeze passes in the night. When did it spring up? Whence does it come? Whither is it going? No man knows.”
The Divine Milieu, p. 128
The Divine Milieu (1960)
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Pierre Teilhard De Chardin64
French philosopher and Jesuit priest 1881–1955Related quotes
Paul Hamilton Hayne (1830–1886) American editor and poet
A Comparison.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
John Ruysbroeck (1293–1381) Flemish mystic
Quoted in Ruysbroeck the Admirable (1925) by Alfred Wautier d'Aygalliers and Fred Rothwell, p. 175
Omar Khayyám (1048–1131) Persian poet, philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer
Source: The Rubaiyat (1120)
Omar Khayyám (1048–1131) Persian poet, philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer
Source: The Rubaiyat (1120)
“I am born into an environment — I know not whence I came nor whither I go nor who I am.”
Erwin Schrödinger (1887–1961) Austrian physicist
Science and Humanism (1951)
Context: I am born into an environment — I know not whence I came nor whither I go nor who I am. This is my situation as yours, every single one of you. The fact that everyone always was in this same situation, and always will be, tells me nothing. Our burning question as to the whence and whither — all we can ourselves observe about it is the present environment. That is why we are eager to find out about it as much as we can. That is science, learning, knowledge; it is the true source of every spiritual endeavour of man. We try to find out as much as we can about the spatial and temporal surroundings of the place in which we find ourselves put by birth…
“Let them make their war.
Whence come night and day?”
Taliesin (534–599) Welsh bard
Book of Taliesin (c. 1275?), The First Address of Taliesin
Context: Let them make their war.
Whence come night and day?
Whence will the eagle become gray?
Whence is it that night is dark?
Whence is it that the linnet is green?
The ebullition of the sea,
How is it not seen?
“Just because a man glances up at the sky at night does not make him an astronomer, you know.”
John Boyne book The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
Source: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas