The Sun My Heart (1996)
Context: There is no phenomenon in the universe that does not intimately concern us, from a pebble resting at the bottom of the ocean, to the movement of a galaxy millions of light years away. Walt Whitman said, "I believe a blade of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars...." These words are not philosophy. They come from the depths of his soul. He also said, "I am large, I contain multitudes." This might be called a meditation on "interfacing endlessly interwoven." All phenomena are interdependent. When we think of a speck of dust, a flower, or a human being, our thinking cannot break loose from the idea of unity, of one, of calculation. We see a line drawn between one and many, one and not one. But if we truly realize the interdependent nature of the dust, the flower, and the human being, we see that unity cannot exist without diversity. Unity and diversity interpenetrate each other freely. Unity is diversity, and diversity is unity. This is the principle of interbeing.
“That we have first rais'd a Dust, and then complain, we cannot see.”
A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge (1710)
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George Berkeley 18
Anglo-Irish philosopher 1685–1753Related quotes
A Declaration of Independence (12 March 1964) http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=1148
Variant: We cannot think of uniting with others, until after we have first united among ourselves. We cannot think of being acceptable to others until we have first proven acceptable to ourselves.
Context: There can be no black-white unity until there is first some black unity. There can be no workers' solidarity until there is first some racial solidarity. We cannot think of uniting with others, until after we have first united among ourselves. We cannot think of being acceptable to others until we have first proven acceptable to ourselves. One can't unite bananas with scattered leaves.
1960s, Special message to Congress on the right to vote (1965)
“We can show the way. We can make dust -- or eat dust.”
State of the State address http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/d/x/dxd22/1993B.htm (2 February 1993)
“We do not have anything, but the body. The soul is an invention, dust of the cross.”
Non abbiamo che il corpo. L’anima è un’invenzione, polvere di croce.