“Are the gods mad or are they so subtle we cannot fathom the workings of their minds?”

—  Michael Moorcock

Source: Book 3, Chapter 4 “What the Sea God Said” (p. 554), The Elric Cycle, Stormbringer (1965)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Dec. 16, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Are the gods mad or are they so subtle we cannot fathom the workings of their minds?" by Michael Moorcock?
Michael Moorcock photo
Michael Moorcock 224
English writer, editor, critic 1939

Related quotes

Meher Baba photo

“Mind working is man, mind working fast is mad, mind slowed down is Mast and mind stopped is God.”

Meher Baba (1894–1969) Indian mystic

General sources

Eoin Colfer photo

““Who can fathom the workings of the criminal mind?” I said, trying to sound intelligent.”

Eoin Colfer book Half Moon Investigations

Half Moon Investigations (2006)

“God’s plan and His ways of working out His plan are frequently beyond our ability to fathom and understand. We must learn to trust when we don’t understand.”

Jerry Bridges (1929–2016) American writer

Source: Trusting God: Even When Life Hurts

“An infant crying in the crib can better appreciate the character of its mother than we can fathom the full nature of God.”

Kirby Page (1890–1957) American clergyman

What Does God Want Us to Do About Russia? (1948)

“so who's more adult- somebody who works like mad to avoid a problem or somebody who works like mad to solve it?”

Janet Kagan book Uhura's Song

Source: Uhura's Song

George C. Lorimer photo

“The human mind may know God, and learn of God, though it has no terms by which to explain Him; it may think of Him as Absolute, as Infinite, as Personal, while it may never in this life be able to fathom the full meaning of these sublime ideas.”

George C. Lorimer (1838–1904) American minister

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 267.

Johannes Kepler photo

“We do not ask for what useful purpose the birds do sing, for song is their pleasure since they were created for singing. Similarly, we ought not to ask why the human mind troubles to fathom the secrets of the heavens. The diversity of the phenomena of nature is so great and the treasures hidden in the heavens so rich precisely in order that the human mind shall never be lacking in fresh nourishment.”

Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) German mathematician, astronomer and astrologer

As quoted in Cosmos (1980) by Carl Sagan.

“Man’s mind is very fast, faster than the wind. By doing work while repeating God’s Name, your mind becomes cleansed of thoughts and useless, negative thoughts cannot enter it.”

Haidakhan Babaji teacher in northern India

Repetition of God’s name
Source: The Teachings of Babaji, 30 June 1983.

“We have, among innumerable other works, the Summa theologica, surely one of the most amazing and stupendous products of the human mind. …never before or since has the wide world been so neatly boxed and compassed, so completely and confidently understood, every detail of it fitted, with such subtle and loving precision, into a consistent and convincing whole.”

Carl L. Becker (1873–1945) American historian

The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth-century Philosophers (1932)

George II of Great Britain photo

“If he is mad, so much the better; and if he is mad, I hope to God he’ll bite some of my generals.”

George II of Great Britain (1683–1760) British monarch

The New-York Magazine (November 1791) p. 662.
On being warned by the Duke of Newcastle, in 1758, against promoting James Wolfe. Often quoted as "Mad, is he? Then I hope he will bite some of my other generals."

Related topics