Source: Stranger in a Strange Land
“Goodness without wisdom always accomplishes evil.”
The Serpent, in Pt. V
1920s, Back to Methuselah (1921)
“The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil.”
Source: The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus
“Wisdom has its root in goodness, not goodness its root in wisdom.”
“What good is it to accomplish projects, when the project itself is enjoyment enough?”
Et à quoi bon exécuter des projets, puisque le projet est en lui-même une jouissance suffisante?
XXIV: "Les Projets" http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Petits_Po%C3%A8mes_en_prose_-_XXIV._Les_Projets
Le Spleen de Paris (1862)
“To profit from good advice requires more wisdom than to give it.”
Source: The Occult: A History (1971), p. 280
Context: The real importance of Swedenborg lies in the doctrines he taught, which are the reverse of the gloom and hell-fire of other breakaway sects. He rejects the notion that Jesus died on the cross to atone for the sin of Adam, declaring that God is neither vindictive nor petty-minded, and that since he is God, he doesn't need atonement. It is remarkable that this common-sense view had never struck earlier theologians. God is Divine Goodness, and Jesus is Divine Wisdom, and Goodness has to be approached through Wisdom. Whatever one thinks about the extraordinary claims of its founder, it must be acknowledged that there is something very beautiful and healthy about the Swedenborgian religion. Its founder may have not been a great occultist, but he was a great man.
