“Every moment we're making decisions. If you want to understand the universe as a whole you'd have to include all those decisions including our own lives so that even in the future our presence is going to be felt one way or the other — so I think … our death as being — it's a death to a micro-phase self or a small self … it's a death into our larger self in that … this whole vast adventure is our larger identity.”

—  Brian Swimme

Meaningoflife.tv interview, 2013

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 "Every moment we're making decisions. If you want to understand the universe as a whole you'd have to include all those …" by Brian Swimme?
Brian Swimme photo
Brian Swimme 12
American cosmologist 1950

Related quotes

Christopher Moore photo
Mahatma Gandhi photo

“Our sages have taught us to learn one thing; `As in the Self, so in the Universe.' It is not possible to scan the universe as it is to scan the self. Know the self and you know the universe.”

Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) pre-eminent leader of Indian nationalism during British-ruled India

Young India (8 April 1926)
1920s

Michelle Obama photo
Stéphane Valeri photo

“Exploring the infinitely small particles to better protect our planet and understand its major challenges is essential, so that our decisions live up to the hopes of future generations.”

Stéphane Valeri (1962) Monaco politician

Source: Stéphane Valeri (2021) cited in: " High Level Visit to IAEA Monaco Laboratories Highlights Nuclear Techniques to Protect People, the Ocean https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/high-level-visit-to-iaea-monaco-laboratories-highlights-nuclear-techniques-to-protect-people-the-ocean" in International Atomic Energy Agency, 4 March 2021.

George Holmes Howison photo
Orson Scott Card photo
Thich Nhat Hanh photo

“We are imprisoned in our small selves, thinking only of some comfortable conditions for this small self, while we destroy our large self. If we want to change the situation, we must begin by being our true selves.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

The Sun My Heart (1996)
Context: If you are a mountain climber or someone who enjoys the countryside or the forest, you know that forests are our lungs outside of our bodies. Yet we have been acting in a way that has allowed millions of square miles of land to be deforested, and we have also destroyed the air, the rivers, and parts of the ozone layer. We are imprisoned in our small selves, thinking only of some comfortable conditions for this small self, while we destroy our large self. If we want to change the situation, we must begin by being our true selves. To be our true selves means we have to be the forest, the river, and the ozone layer. If we visualize ourselves as the forest, we will experience the hopes and fears of the trees. If we don't do this, the forests will die, and we will lose our chance for peace. When we understand that we inter-are with the trees, we will know that it is up to us to make an effort to keep the trees alive.

Aldo Capitini photo
Poul Anderson photo

Related topics