“When we look at a thing, we must examine its essence and treat its appearance merely as an usher at the threshold, and once we cross the threshold, we must grasp the essence of the thing; this is the only reliable and scientific method of analysis.”
“A Single Spark Can Start a Prairie Fire” (January 5, 1930)
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Mao Zedong 181
Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of… 1893–1976Related quotes

“Death’s a fearful thing when we must count its steps!”
The Improvisatrice (1824)

XII, 95
On the Improvement of the Understanding (1662)
Context: A definition, if it is to be called perfect, must explain the inmost essence of a thing, and must take care not to substitute for this any of its properties. In order to illustrate my meaning, without taking an example which would seem to show a desire to expose other people's errors, I will choose the case of something abstract, the definition of which is of little moment. Such is a circle. If a circle be defined as a figure, such that all straight lines drawn from the center to the circumference are equal, every one can see that such a definition does not in the least explain the essence of a circle, but solely one of its properties. Though, as I have said, this is of no importance in the case of figures and other abstractions, it is of great importance in the case of physical beings and realities, for the properties of things are not understood so long as their essences are unknown. If the latter be passed over, there is necessarily a perversion of the succession of ideas which should reflect the succession of nature, and we go far astray from our object.

Speech in Hillsdale, Michigan, February 7, 2004. http://renewamerica.us/archives/speeches/04_02_07hillsdale.htm.
2009

“We abandoned the appearance of power to preserve the essence of it.”
Source: The Foundation series (1951–1993), Foundation’s Edge (1982), Chapter 20 “Conclusion” section 1, p. 408

Variant: It is with the soul that we grasp the essence of another human being, not with the mind, nor even with the heart.

Variant translation: Names and attributes must be accommodated to the essence of things, and not the essence to the names, because things came first, and their names subsequently.
Other quotes
Source: As quoted in Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo (1957) by Stillman Drake, p. 92