Philosophy quotes — page 25

Beyond the intellect there is another stage in which another eye is opened, by which one sees the unseen and what will be in the future.

Knowledge is not perfected by learning alone; it is perfected when it becomes a state that moves the limbs to action.

Know yourself, for the knowledge of the self is the key to the knowledge of God.

By unaided reason Hayy rose to knowledge of the Necessary Existent, before any human teacher reached him.

What revelation teaches by symbols, the philosopher may reach by demonstration; the two agree in substance for those who understand.

Most people cling to the outer forms of worship; to strip those forms away suddenly only harms them.

Solitude became for him a ladder: withdrawing from the senses, he turned inward toward the Truth.

Royal authority and large-scale dynastic power are attained only through group feeling (ʿaṣabiyya).

History is a discipline that has a large number of approaches. Its useful aspects are very many. Its goal is distinguished.

The past resembles the future more than one drop of water another.

When luxury and sedentary culture take hold, group feeling weakens and the dynasty declines.

Silence and limiting oneself to the apprehensions of the intellect are more appropriate with regard to God than speech.

The Law as a whole aims at two things: the welfare of the soul and the welfare of the body.

The more the intellect is perfected, the more one draws near to God; proximity is measured by knowledge.

The virtues are means between two extremes; the good character is the mean disposition.

The foundation of all foundations and the pillar of all sciences is to know that there is a First Being who brought every existing thing into being.

Prophecy is an overflow from God through the intermediation of the Active Intellect, first to the rational faculty and then to the imaginative faculty.

God has given us the Torah and also intellect, so that we may verify by reason what we have received by tradition.

Inquiry is not forbidden to us; on the contrary, we are commanded to know God by the path of demonstration as far as we can.

The world was created ex nihilo; it did not eternally accompany the Creator.

Divine justice requires that obedience and disobedience not be equal in outcome; reward and punishment follow desert.

I believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who led the Israelites out of Egypt with signs and miracles—not in the God of Aristotle.

Speculative philosophy may lead to a First Cause, yet it cannot yield the living God who speaks in history and commandment.

Israel among the nations is like the heart among the organs: it is the most sensitive and the most receptive of the divine influence.