“It has long seemed ridiculous to me to suppose that the nature of things has been so poor and stingy that it provided souls only to such a trifling mass of bodies on our globe, like human bodies, when it could have given them to all, without interfering with its other ends.” HumansLongHas BeensSoulEndsBodyGivenPoorMassRidiculousGlobesInterfereHuman BodyTriflingStingy Book:Leibniz: Philosophical Essays Source: Leibniz: Philosophical Essays
“Natural religion itself, seems to decay very much. Many will have human souls to be material: others make God himself a corporeal being.” HumansSoulSeemsNaturalMaterialsDecayHuman Soul Book:Leibniz: Philosophical Essays Source: Leibniz: Philosophical Essays
“If you have a clear idea of a soul, you will have a clear idea of a form; for it is of the same genus, though a different species.” IfsIdeasDifferentSoulFormClearSpecies Author:Gottfried Leibniz
“There is no argument so cogent not only in demonstrating, the indestructibility of the soul, but also in showing that it always preserves in its nature traces of all its preceding states with a practical remembrance which can always be aroused. Since it has the consciousness of or knows in itself what each one calls his me. This renders it open to moral qualities, to chastisement and to recompense even after this life, for immortality without remembrance would be of no value.” KnowsSoulStatesWould BeValuesConsciousnessQualityMoralArgumentKarmaPracticalsThis LifePreservesImmortalityRemembranceDemonstratingChastisementRecompense Author:Gottfried Leibniz
“There never is absolute birth nor complete death, in the strict sense, consisting in the separation of the soul from the body. What we call births are developments and growths, while what we call deaths are envelopments and diminutions.” SoulBodyGrowthDevelopmentBirthAbsolutesSeparationStrictDevelopment And Growth Author:Gottfried Leibniz
“Music is a secret and unconscious mathematical problem of the soul.” SoulProblemSecretMusic IsMathematicalUnconsciousMathematical Problems Author:Gottfried Leibniz
“Either there are no corporeal substances, and bodies are merely phenomena which are true or consistent with each other, such as a rainbow or a perfectly coherent dream, or there is in all corporeal substances something analogous to the soul.” SoulDreamBodySubstanceConsistentRainbow Author:Gottfried Leibniz
“There is a world of created beings - living things, animals, entelechies, and souls - in the least part of matter.... Thus there is nothing waste, nothing sterile, nothing dead in the universe; no chaos, no confusions, save in appearance.” WorldSoulMatterUniverseAnimalWasteChaosAppearanceConfusionLiving Things Author:Gottfried Leibniz
“These principles have given me a way of explaining naturally the union or rather the mutual agreement [conformité] of the soul and the organic body. The soul follows its own laws, and the body likewise follows its own laws; and they agree with each other in virtue of the pre-established harmony between all substances, since they are all representations of one and the same universe.” WaySoulBodyLawScienceUniverseGivenPrinciplesVirtueHarmonyAgreeUnionsSubstanceAgreementMutualRepresentationExplaining Author:Gottfried Leibniz
“Music is a hidden arithmetic exercise of the soul, which does not know that it is counting.” KnowsDoeSoulExerciseMusic IsCountingArithmetic Author:Gottfried Leibniz
“But it is the knowledge of necessary and eternal truths which distinguishes us from mere animals, and gives us reason and the sciences, raising us to knowledge of ourselves and God. It is this in us which we call the rational soul or mind.” GivingMindSoulReasonAnimalWords Of WisdomEternalMereRational Author:Gottfried Leibniz
“We may say, that not only the soul (the mirror of an indestructible universe) is indestructible, but also the animal itself is, although its mechanism is frequently destroyed in parts.” SoulUniverseMirrorsIndestructible Author:Gottfried Leibniz
