
Source: Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (1994), p. 398
Source: Meditations
Source: Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (1994), p. 398
Unity and Multitude
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part VI - Mind and Matter
Context: We can no longer separate things as we once could: everything tends towards unity; one thing, one action, in one place, at one time. On the other hand, we can no longer unify things as we once could; we are driven to ultimate atoms, each one of which is an individuality. So that we have an infinite multitude of things doing an infinite multitude of actions in infinite time and space; and yet they are not many things, but one thing.
“We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected in the deep.”
“We are dancing in the hollow of nothingness. We are one flesh, but separated like stars.”
Quoted on Contemporary art, http://coolturamagazine.com/xabier-lezama-mitologia-vasca/, February 15, 2020.
“The only thing that separates us from the animals… is we have pornography.”
As quoted in The Harper Book of Quotations (1993) edited by Robert I. Fitzhenry, p. 419
Undated