“When someone's body can no longer perform its functions in the natural world in response to the thoughts and affections of its spirit (which it derives from the spiritual world), then we say that the individual has died. This happens when the lungs' breathing and the heart's systolic motion have ceased. The person, though, has not died at all. We are only separated from the physical nature that was useful to us in the world. The essential person is actually still alive. I say that the essential person is still alive because we are not people because of our bodies but because of our spirits. After all, it is the spirit within us that thinks, and thought and affection together make us the people we are. We can see, then, that when we die we simply move from one world into another. This is why in the inner meaning of the Bible, "death" means resurrection and a continuation of life.”

— Emanuel Swedenborg

Heaven and Hell #445

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Emanuel Swedenborg 13

Swedish 18th century scientist and theologian 1688–1772

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“I tell you that if natural bodies have it from Nature to be moved by any movement, this can only be circular motion, nor is it possible that Nature has given to any of its integral bodies a propensity to be moved by straight motion. I have many confirmations of this proposition, but for the present one alone suffices, which is this. I suppose the parts of the universe to be in the best arrangement, so that none is out of its place, which is to say that Nature and God have perfectly arranged their structure. This being so, it is impossible for those parts to have it from Nature to be moved in straight, or in other than circular motion, because what moves straight changes place, and if it changes place naturally, then it was at first in a place preternatural to it, which goes against the supposition. Therefore, if the parts of the world are well ordered, straight motion is superfluous and not natural, and they can only have it when some body is forcibly removed from its natural place, to which it would then return by a straight line, for thus it appears that a part of the earth does [move] when separated from its whole. I said "it appears to us," because I am not against thinking that not even for such an effect does Nature make use of straight line motion.”

Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) Italian mathematician, physicist, philosopher and astronomer

A note on this statement is included by Stillman Drake in his Galileo at Work, His Scientific Biography (1981): Galileo adhered to this position in his Dialogue at least as to the "integral bodies of the universe." by which he meant stars and planets, here called "parts of the universe." But he did not attempt to explain the planetary motions on any mechanical basis, nor does this argument from "best arrangement" have any bearing on inertial motion, which to Galileo was indifference to motion and rest and not a tendency to move, either circularly or straight.
Letter to Francesco Ingoli (1624)

“Here we reach the demonstration that evolution not only is a fact, and a fact of cosmic extent, but is a necessary law a priori over Nature. But we learn at the same time, and upon the same evidence, that it cannot in any wise affect the a priori consciousness, which is the essential being and true person of the mind; much less can it originate this. On the contrary, we have seen it is in this a priori consciousness that the law of evolution has its source and its warrant. Issuing from the noumenal being of mind, evolution has its field only in the world of the mind's experiences, — "inner" and "outer," physical and psychic; or, to speak summarily, only in the world of phenomena. But there, it is indeed universal and strictly necessary.”

George Holmes Howison (1834–1916) American philosopher

Source: The Limits of Evolution, and Other Essays, Illustrating the Metaphysical Theory of Personal Ideaalism (1905), The Limits of Evolution, p.40-1

“There has been the assumption that men are finite spirits. They are, that is to say, not only animals with a brief terrestrial existence, but in them is an element which comes from, and belongs to, the spiritual world. This world we postulate to be the world of eternal reality, of God; and we assume that in it whatever is of God, the things that are good, beautiful and true, will exist for ever with Him. We have then, to justify our belief that, because such God-like qualities exist in human personality, that personality will survive the destruction of the body.”

Ernest Barnes (1874–1953) English mathematician and clergyman

p, 125
Spiritualism and the Christian Faith (1918)

“Our comforting sense of the permanence of our natural world, our confidence that it will change gradually and imperceptibly if at all, is the result of a subtly warped perspective. Changes that can affect us can happen in our lifetime in our world—not just changes like wars but bigger and more sweeping events. I believe that without recognizing it we have already stepped over the threshold of such a change; that we are at the end of nature. By the end of nature I do not mean the end of the world. The rain will still fall and the sun shine, though differently than before. When I say 'nature,' I mean a certain set of human ideas about the world and our place in it.”

Bill McKibben book The End of Nature

Source: The End of Nature (1989), p. 7

“To read fiction means to play a game by which we give sense to the immensity of things that happened, are happening, or will happen in the actual world. By reading narrative, we escape the anxiety that attacks us when we try to say something true about the world. This is the consoling function of narrative — the reason people tell stories, and have told stories from the beginning of time.”

Umberto Eco book Six Walks in the Fictional Woods

Six Walks in the Fictional Woods (1994) Chapter Four: "Possible Woods"

“Verse no longer stands at the centre of communicative discourse. It is no longer, as it was from Homer to Milton, the natural repository of knowledge and traditional sentiment. It no longer gives to society its main record of past grandeur or its natural setting for prophecy, as it did in Virgil and Dante. Verse has grown private. It is a special language which the individual poet insinuates, by force of personal genius, into the awareness of his contemporaries, persuading to learn and perhaps hand on his own uses of words. Poetry has become essentially lyric — that is to say, it is the poetry of private vision rather than of public or of national occasion.”

George Steiner (1929–2020) American writer

Source: The Death of Tragedy (1961), Ch. IX (p. 309).

“The field of the finite is all that we can see, hear, touch, remember, and describe. This field is basically that which is manifest, or tangible. The essential quality of the infinite, by contrast, is its subtlety, its intangibility. This quality is conveyed in the word spirit, whose root meaning is "wind, or breath." This suggests an invisible but pervasive energy, to which the manifest world of the finite responds. This energy, or spirit, infuses all living beings, and without it any organism must fall apart into its constituent elements. That which is truly alive in the living being is this energy of spirit, and this is never born and never dies.”

David Bohm (1917–1992) American theoretical physicist

As quoted in Infinite Potential: The Life and Times of David Bohm by F. David Peat https://books.google.com/books?id=pobZMUmZbAEC&pg=PA322&dq=The+field+of+the+finite+is+all+that+we+can+see,+hear,+touch,+remember,+and+describe.+This+field+is+basically+that+which+is+manifest,+or+tangible.+The+essential+quality+of+the+infinite,+by+contrast,+is+its+subtlety,+its+intangibility.+This+quality+is+conveyed+in+the+word+spirit,+whose+root+meaning+is+%22wind,+or+breath.%22+This+suggests+an+invisible+but+pervasive+energy,+to+which+the+manifest+world+of+the+finite+responds.+This+energy,+or+spirit,+infuses+all+living+beings,+and+without+it+any+organism+must+fall+apart+into+its+constituent+elements.+That+which+is+truly+alive+in+the+living+being+is+this+energy+of+spirit,+and+this+is+never+born+and+never+dies&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjotZe8m6_TAhWs5oMKHbA4CkMQ6AEIIzAA#v=onepage&q=The%20field%20of%20the%20finite%20is%20all%20that%20we%20can%20see%2C%20hear%2C%20touch%2C%20remember%2C%20and%20describe.%20This%20field%20is%20basically%20that%20which%20is%20manifest%2C%20or%20tangible.%20The%20essential%20quality%20of%20the%20infinite%2C%20by%20contrast%2C%20is%20its%20subtlety%2C%20its%20intangibility.%20This%20quality%20is%20conveyed%20in%20the%20word%20spirit%2C%20whose%20root%20meaning%20is%20%22wind%2C%20or%20breath.%22%20This%20suggests%20an%20invisible%20but%20pervasive%20energy%2C%20to%20which%20the%20manifest%20world%20of%20the%20finite%20responds.%20This%20energy%2C%20or%20spirit%2C%20infuses%20all%20living%20beings%2C%20and%20without%20it%20any%20organism%20must%20fall%20apart%20into%20its%20constituent%20elements.%20That%20which%20is%20truly%20alive%20in%20the%20living%20being%20is%20this%20energy%20of%20spirit%2C%20and%20this%20is%20never%20born%20and%20never%20dies&f=false (1997) page 322, .

“We often forget that WE ARE NATURE. Nature is not something separate from us. So when we say that we have lost our connection to nature, we’ve lost our connection to ourselves.”

Andy Goldsworthy (1956) British sculptor and photographer

“The essential thing in religion is making the heart pure; the Kingdom of Heaven is within us, but only the pure in heart can see the King. While we think of the world, it is only the world for us; but let us come to it with the feeling that the world is God, and we shall have God.”

Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher

Pearls of Wisdom

“My countersuggestion, issuing essentially from Carnap's doctrine of the physical world in the Aufbau, is that our statements about the external world face the tribunal of sense experience not individually but only as a corporate body.”

Willard van Orman Quine (1908–2000) American philosopher and logician

Les Deux Dogmes de l'empirisme

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Emanuel Swedenborg 13

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