“The theory that Divine Providence does not extend to man, and that there is no difference between man and other animals, implies very bad notions about God; it disturbs all social order, removes and destroys all the moral and intellectual virtues of man.”

Source: Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Part III, Ch.17

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 "The theory that Divine Providence does not extend to man, and that there is no difference between man and other animals…" by Maimónides?
Maimónides photo
Maimónides 180
rabbi, physician, philosopher 1138–1204

Related quotes

William G. Boykin photo
Thomas Paine photo
Witness Lee photo

“The highest morality is one in which divinity is added to our humanity. This is the divine attributes of God expressed in the created virtues of man.”

Witness Lee (1905–1997) Chinese Christian preacher

The Glorious Vision and the Way of the Cross, of Witness Lee - By Living Stream Ministry, ISBN 978-0-87083-479-0

Maimónides photo
Marco Denevi photo

“The moral of all fables: Man is an animal.”

Moraleja de todas las fábulas: el hombre es un animal.
Falsificaciones (1977)

Walker Percy photo
Mortimer J. Adler photo

“Above all, money-making and other external indices of social success must become subordinate to the inner attainments of moral and intellectual virtue.”

Mortimer J. Adler (1902–2001) American philosopher and educator

Source: Reforming Education: The Opening of the American Mind (1990), p. 314

William James photo

“We are all ready to be savage in some cause. The difference between a good man and a bad one is the choice of the cause.”

William James (1842–1910) American philosopher, psychologist, and pragmatist

Letter to E.L. Godkin (24 December 1895)
1890s

Horace Mann photo

“The intellectual and moral nature of man is the one thing precious in the sight of God”

Horace Mann (1796–1859) American politician

Source: Thoughts Selected from the Writings of Horace Mann (1872), p. 183
Context: The intellectual and moral nature of man is the one thing precious in the sight of God; and therefore, until this nature is cultivated, and enlightened, and purified, neither opulence, nor power, nor learning, nor genius, nor domestic sanctity, nor the holiness of God's altars, can ever be safe. Until the immortal and god-like capacities of every being that comes iuto the world are deemed more worthy, are watched more tenderly than any other thing, no dynasty of men, or form of government, can stand, or shall stand, upon the face of the earth; and the force or the fraud which would seek to uphold them, shall be but "as fetters of flax to bind the flame."

“...man is the animal that moralizes. Man is also the animal that complains about being one, and says that there is an animal, a beast inside him — that he is brother to dragons.”

Randall Jarrell (1914–1965) poet, critic, novelist, essayist

He is certainly a brother to wolves, and to pandas too, but he is father to dragons, not brother: they, like many gods and devils, are inventions of his.

“On the Underside of the Stone”, p. 177
Kipling, Auden & Co: Essays and Reviews 1935-1964 (1980)

Related topics