Source: The Flame is Green (1971), Ch. 9 : Oh, The Steep Roofs of Paris
Context: Beware of those who manufacture final answers as they go along, of those who will catch you on their catch-phrases and let you perish in the traps. All the final answers were given in the beginning. They stand shining, above and beyond us, but they are always there to be seen. They may be too bright for us, they may be too clear for us. Well then, we must clarify our own eyes. Our task is to grow out until we reach them.
“All these growing things are good, if they grow towards the final answers that were given in the beginning.”
Source: The Flame is Green (1971), Ch. 9 : Oh, The Steep Roofs of Paris
Context: In this growing there are no really new things or new situations. There are only things growing out right, or things growing out deformed or shriveled. There is nothing new about railways or foundries or lathes or steel furnaces. They also are green-growing things. There is nothing new about organizations of men or of money. All these growing things are good, if they grow towards the final answers that were given in the beginning.
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R. A. Lafferty 109
American writer 1914–2002Related quotes
As translated by Paul Harrison <!-- Fifth dialogue ?-->
Cause, Principle, and Unity (1584)
Context: The Universe is one, infinite, immobile. The absolute potential is one, the act is one, the form or soul is one, the material or body is one, the thing is one, the being in one, one is the maximum and the best... It is not generated, because there is no other being it could desire or hope for, since it comprises all being. It does not grow corrupt. because there is nothing else into which it could change, given that it is itself all things. It cannot diminish or grow, since it is infinite.
The Farther Reaches of Human Nature (1971).
1970s and later
“By viewing Nature, Nature's handmaid Art,
Makes mighty things from small beginnings grow.”
Annus Mirabilis (1667), stanza 155.
Source: The Flame is Green (1971), Ch. 9 : Oh, The Steep Roofs of Paris
Context: In this growing there are no really new things or new situations. There are only things growing out right, or things growing out deformed or shriveled. There is nothing new about railways or foundries or lathes or steel furnaces. They also are green-growing things. There is nothing new about organizations of men or of money. All these growing things are good, if they grow towards the final answers that were given in the beginning.
“Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty, and dies with chaos.”
The Story of Philosophy (1926)
“I see enormous loves growing immense and finally crushing me.”