Source: Broca's Brain (1979), Chapter 8, “Norman Bloom, Messenger of God” (p. 152)
“In Plato’s Republic one finds the proposition: God, being perfect, cannot change (not for the better, since "perfect" means that there can be no better; not for the worse, since ability to change for the worse, to decay, degenerate, or become corrupt, is a weakness, an imperfection). The argument may seem cogent, but it is so only if two assumptions are valid: that it is possible to conceive of a meaning for "perfect" that excludes change in any and every respect and that we must conceive God as perfect in just this sense.”
Omnipotence and Other Theological Mistakes (1984)
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Charles Hartshorne 23
Philosopher 1897–2000Related quotes
Source: 1920s, "Picasso Speaks" (1923), p. 391.
Source: The Purpose and Power of Love & Marriage
Or, comme il y a une infinité d'univers possibles dans les idées de Dieu, et qu'il n'en peut exister qu'un seul, il faut qu'il y ait une raison suffisante du choix de Dieu qui le détermine à l'un plutôt qu'à l'autre. Et cette raison ne peut se trouver que dans la convenance, dans les degrés de perfection que ces mondes contiennent, chaque possible ayant droit de prétendre à l'existence à mesure de la perfection qu'il enveloppe.
La monadologie (53 & 54).
The Monadology (1714)
“To improve is to change, so to be perfect is to have changed often.”
Winston Churchill (June 23, 1925), His complete speeches, 1897–1963, edited by Robert Rhodes James, Chelsea House ed., vol. 4 (1922–1928), p. 3706. During a debate with Philip Snowden, 1st Viscount Snowden.
Often misquoted as: To improve is to change, to be perfect is to change often.
Early career years (1898–1929)
Source: Lectures on Philosophy (1959), p. 87
'Modus Vivendi' (p.29)
Gray's Anatomy: Selected Writings (2009)
“No man's more fortunate than he who's poor,
Since for the worse his fortune cannot change.”
Fragment 23
Fabulae Incertae