“You had that action and counteraction which, in the natural and in the political world, from the reciprocal struggle of discordant powers draws out the harmony of the universe.”
Volume iii, p. 277
Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)
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Edmund Burke270
Anglo-Irish statesman 1729–1797Related quotes
Frances Wright (1795–1852) American activist
"An Exposition of the Mission of England: Addressed to the Peoples of Europe" in The Reasoner, Vol. 3, No. 54 (1847), p. 321
Context: It is not, happily, within our power thus to work destruction in the universal womb of things; still within the sphere of human influence — which extends to the uttermost limit of our world's circumambient atmosphere — we can, and do, modify all nature's kingdom; bending towards good or ill, health or disease, harmony or discord, each part, each unit of the universal plan. Upon our just or erroneous comprehension then, of the laws of nature, must depend our adaptation of art for the right improvement or for the ignorant deterioration of Nature's works. And moreover, upon our just or erroneous interpretation of these in the first division of truth — the physical — will depend our interpretation of them in the intellectual and in the moral; from all which it follows, that our system of human economy will present, even as it has ever presented, a practical exhibition of that of the universe. There is more consistency in the human mind, as in the course of events, than is supposed. In both, the first link in the chain decides the last. Man hath ever made a cosmogony in keeping with his views in physics; a scheme of government in keeping with his cosmogony; a theory of ethics in keeping with his government, and a code of law and theology in keeping with his ethics. Every perception of the human mind modifies human practice. Science is but the theory of art.
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
Variant: Three Rules of Work:
Out of clutter find simplicity.
From discord find harmony.
In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.
Source: The Quotable Einstein
“Opposition brings concord. Out of discord comes the fairest harmony.”
Heraclitus (-535) pre-Socratic Greek philosopher
As translated by Philip Wheelwright in Heraclitus (1959) https://archive.org/details/heraclitus00whee <br class="br">Disputed
Wilhelm Von Humboldt (1767–1835) German (Prussian) philosopher, government functionary, diplomat, and founder of the University of Berlin
Source: The Limits of State Action (1792), Ch. 8
John O'Donohue (1956–2008) Irish writer, priest and philosopher
Source: Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom
Robert South (1634–1716) English theologian
Sermon preach at St. Marys, December 10, 1661, in Twelve Sermons Preached Upon Several Occasions (1727), Vol. 3, p. 140
Robert Fludd (1574–1637) British mathematician and astrologer
Robert Fludd, in The Art and Practice of Geomancy: Divination, Magic, and Earth Wisdom of the , p. 24.
Stephen Jay Gould book An Urchin in the Storm
Source: An Urchin in the Storm (1987) "Nurturing Nature", p. 150
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) British poet laureate
The Death of the Duke of Clarence and Avondale