“There are not many beginnings but there is a single Beginning, prior to multitude. But if you were to say that the beginnings are plural apart from their partaking of the One, that statement would self-destruct. For, surely, these plural beginnings would be both alike, by virtue of their not partaking of the One, and not alike, by virtue of their not partaking of the One.” IfsSelfWould BeVirtueStatementsMultitudesSelf Destruct Author:Nicholas of Cusa
“If, therefore, man has come into the world to search for God and, if he has found Him, to adhere to Him and to find repose in adhering to Him-man cannot search for Him and attain Him in this sensible and corporeal world, since God is spirit rather than body, and cannot be attained in intellectual abstraction, since one is able to conceive nothing similar to God, as he asserts-how can one, therefore, search for Him in order to find Him?” IfsMenWorldBodyAbleSpiritOrderFoundIntellectualReal WorldSensibleAbstractionRepose Author:Nicholas of Cusa
“Life and perfection, joy and repose and whatever all the senses desire, lie in the distinguishing spirit, and from it they have everything that they have. Even if the organs lose in power and the life in them decreases in activity, it does not decrease in the distinguishing spirit, from which they receive the same life, when the fault or infirmity is removed.” IfsDoeJoySpiritLyingDesireLosesActivityPerfectionFaultsSensesOrgansReposeDecreaseInfirmity Author:Nicholas of Cusa
“For our intellectual spirit has the power of fire in itself. For no other purpose is it sent by God to the earth than that it glow and grow into a flame. When it is excited by admiration, then it grows, just as if the wind entering into a fire excited its potential to actuality. If we apprehend the works of God, we marvel at eternal wisdom.” IfsEarthSpiritPurposeGrowsFireWindEternalIntellectualExcitedFlamesAdmirationEnteringActuality Author:Nicholas of Cusa
“If that one is already a great artist, who knows how to educe from a small piece of wood the face of a king or of a queen, an ant or a camel, how great then is the mastery which can form as actuality everything which is in all potentiality? Therefore, God, who is able to produce from the most minute piece of matter the similitude of all forms which can be in this world and in infinitely many worlds, is of admirable subtlety.” IfsKnowsWorldMatterAbleFacesFormArtistKnow HowPiecesMinutesThis WorldProduceKingsWoodsQueensMasteryGreat ArtAntsAdmirableGreat ArtistSubtletyCamelsActualitySmall Pieces Author:Nicholas of Cusa
“But if you search further, you find in yourself nothing similar to God, but rather you affirm that God stands above all this as cause, origin, and the light of life of your intellective soul.” IfsSoulLightCauses Author:Nicholas of Cusa
“The world has no circumference. It would certainly have a circumference if it had a centre, in which case it would contain within itself its own beginning and end; and that would mean that there was some other thing which imposed a limit to the world - another being existing in space outside the world. All of these conclusions are false. Since, then, the world cannot be enclosed within a material circumference and centre, it is unintelligible without God as its centre and circumference.” IfsWorldMeanEndsSpaceCasesMaterialsLimitsConclusionCentreWithout GodBeginnings And Ends Author:Nicholas of Cusa
“A given circle cannot be so true that a truer one cannot be found; and the movement of a sphere at one moment is never precisely equal to its movement at another, nor does it ever describe two circles similar and equal, even if from appearances the opposite may seem true.” IfsMayDoeTwoMomentsSeemsFoundGivenMovementEqualOppositesAppearanceCirclesSpheres Author:Nicholas of Cusa
“It has been asserted that there is a separate species on the earth to correspond with each one of the stars. Now if the earth provides in each species a focus for the action of each star, why may not a similar provision be made among other heavenly bodies that are subject to the action of their fellows?” IfsMayHas BeensMadeBodyActionEarthStarsFocusSubjectsFellowsSpeciesHeavenlyProvisionHeavenly Bodies Author:Nicholas of Cusa
“In every science certain things must be accepted as first principles if the subject matter is to be understood; and these first postulates rest upon faith.” IfsFirstsMatterScienceCertainFaithUnderstandingPrinciplesSubjectsUnderstoodAcceptedSubject Matter Author:Nicholas of Cusa
