“The infinite of the soul is mightier than the finite in it.”
Source: The Limits of Evolution, and Other Essays, Illustrating the Metaphysical Theory of Personal Ideaalism (1905), The Harmony of Determinism and Freedom, p.373
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George Holmes Howison 135
American philosopher 1834–1916Related quotes
“It is hard to be finite upon an infinite subject, and all subjects are infinite.”
Hawthorne and His Mosses (1850)
“For how shall the finite comprehend the infinite?”
George Boole, An Investigation of the Laws of Thought (1854) Ch. 13. Clarke and Spinoza, pp. 216-217. https://books.google.com/books?id=DqwAAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA216
Context: It is not possible, I think, to rise from the perusal of the arguments of Clark and Spinoza without a deep conviction of the futility of all endeavors to establish, entirely à priori, the existence of an Infinite Being, His attributes, and His relation to the universe. The fundamental principle of all such speculations, viz. that whatever we can clearly conceive, must exist, fails to accomplish its end, even when its truth is admitted. For how shall the finite comprehend the infinite? Yet must the possibility of such conception be granted, and in something more than the sense of a mere withdrawal of the limits of phænomal existence, before any solid ground can be established for the knowledge, à priori, of things infinite and eternal.
“The Infinite alone exists and is Real; the finite is passing and false.”
43 : Toys in the Divine Game, p. 70.
The Everything and the Nothing (1963)
Context: The Infinite alone exists and is Real; the finite is passing and false.
The Original Whim in the Beyond caused the apparent descent of the Infinite into the realm of the seeming finite. This is the Divine Mystery and Divine Game in which Infinite Consciousness for ever plays on all levels of finite consciousness.
“Humor is the contemplation of the finite from the point of view of the infinite.”
“The world's nature is a harmonious compound of infinite and finite elements”
The Life of Pythagoras (1919)
Context: Fragment 1. (Stob.21.7; Diog.#.8.85) The world's nature is a harmonious compound of infinite and finite elements; similar is the totality of the world in itself, and of all it contains.
b. All beings are necessarily finite or infinite, or simultaneously finite and infinite; but they could not all be infinite only.
“Think of something finite molded into the infinite, and you think of man.”
Denke dir ein Endliches ins Unendliche gebildet, so denkst du einen Menschen.
“Selected Ideas (1799-1800)”, Dialogue on Poetry and Literary Aphorisms, Ernst Behler and Roman Struc, trans. (1968) #98
“God is the infinite ALL. Man is only a finite manifestation of Him.”
Entry in Tolstoy's Diary http://www.linguadex.com/tolstoy/chapter1.htm (1 November 1910)
Context: God is the infinite ALL. Man is only a finite manifestation of Him.
Or better yet:
God is that infinite All of which man knows himself to be a finite part.
God alone exists truly. Man manifests Him in time, space and matter. The more God's manifestation in man (life) unites with the manifestations (lives) of other beings, the more man exists. This union with the lives of other beings is accomplished through love.
God is not love, but the more there is of love, the more man manifests God, and the more he truly exists...
We acknowledge God only when we are conscious of His manifestation in us. All conclusions and guidelines based on this consciousness should fully satisfy both our desire to know God as such as well as our desire to live a life based on this recognition.