“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.”

—  Mao Zedong

“A Single Spark Can Start a Prairie Fire” (January 5, 1930)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "When we look at a thing, we must examine its essence and treat its appearance merely as an usher at the threshold, and …" by Mao Zedong?
Mao Zedong photo
Mao Zedong 181
Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of… 1893–1976

Related quotes

Barack Obama photo
Martin Heidegger photo
Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo

“Death’s a fearful thing when we must count its steps!”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist

The Improvisatrice (1824)

Baruch Spinoza photo

“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.”

Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) Dutch philosopher

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.

John Scotus Eriugena photo

“When we are told that God is the maker of all things, we are simply to understand that God is in all things – that He is the substantial essence of all things.”

Original: (la) Cum ergo audimus, Deum omnia facere, nil aliud debemus intelligere, quam Deum in omnibus esse, hoc est, essentiam omnium subsistere.

De Divisione Naturae, Bk. 1, ch. 72; translation from Hugh Fraser Stewart Boethius: An Essay (London: William Blackwood, 1891) p. 255.

Alan Keyes photo

“When we surrender moral government to the courts, we have surrendered the very essence of freedom, we have surrendered its only real meaning--and we will not be free again until we get it back.”

Alan Keyes (1950) American politician

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

Anthony Robbins photo
Isaac Asimov photo

“We abandoned the appearance of power to preserve the essence of it.”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

Source: The Foundation series (1951–1993), Foundation’s Edge (1982), Chapter 20 “Conclusion” section 1, p. 408

Henry Miller photo

“It is with the soul that we grasp the essence of another person, not with the mind, not even with the heart.”

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

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

Galileo Galilei photo

“Names and attributes must be accommodated to the essence of things, and not the essence to the names, since things come first and names afterwards.”

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

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

Related topics