“For the things that are seen are temporal, but things that are unseen are eternal.”
Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) American writer
1930s, Die verfluchten Hakenkreuzler. Etwas zum Nachdenken (1932)
“For the things that are seen are temporal, but things that are unseen are eternal.”
Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) American writer
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) German philosopher
Works, VII, 17.
Context: The great thing however is, in the show of the temporal and the transient to recognize the substance which is immanent and the eternal which is present. For the work of Reason (which is synonymous with the Idea) when considered in its own actuality, is to simultaneously enter external existence and emerge with an infinite wealth of forms, phenomena and phases — a multiplicity that envelops its essential rational kernel with a motley outer rind with which our ordinary consciousness is earliest at home. It is this rind that the Concept must penetrate before Reason can find its own inward pulse and feel it still beating even in the outward phases. But this infinite variety of circumstances which is formed in this element of externality by the light of the rational essence shining in it — all this infinite material, with its regulatory laws — is not the object of philosophy.... To comprehend what is, is the task of philosophy: and what is is Reason.
Aurelius Augustinus (354–430) early Christian theologian and philosopher
As quoted in The Anchor Book of Latin Quotations: with English translations (1990) by Norbert Guterman, p. 375
Disputed
George Holmes Howison (1834–1916) American philosopher
Source: The Limits of Evolution, and Other Essays, Illustrating the Metaphysical Theory of Personal Ideaalism (1905), Appendix D: Reply to a Review in the New York Tribune, p.412-3
Paul Tillich (1886–1965) German-American theologian and philosopher
Systematic Theology (1951–63)
Context: A theological system is supposed to satisfy two basic needs: the statement of the truth of the Christian message and the interpretation of this truth for every new generation. Theology moves back and forth between two poles, the eternal truth of its foundation and the temporal situation in which the eternal truth must be received. Not many theological systems have been able to balance these two demands perfectly.
Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism
Source: 1840s, The Concept of Anxiety (1844), p. 85
Madeleine L'Engle book A Wrinkle in Time
Variant: We look not at the things which are what you would call seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal. But the things which are not seen are eternal.
Source: A Wrinkle in Time