“Each celestial body, in fact each and every atom, produces a particular sound on account of its movement, its rhythm or vibration. All these sounds and vibrations form a universal harmony in which each element, while having it’s own function and character, contributes to the whole.” WholeCharacterFactsBodyFormSoundMovementProduceParticularElementsUniversalAccountsFunctionHarmonyRhythmAtomsVibrationsCelestialCelestial Bodies Author:Pythagoras
“There must be a union between the spirit in wood and the spirit in man. The grain of the wood must relate closely to its function. The abutment of the edge of one board to an adjoining board can mean the success or failure of a piece. () Gradually a form evolves, much as nature produces the tree in the first place. The object created can live forever. The tree lives on in its new form. The object cannot follow a transitory “style”, here for a moment, discarded the next. Its appeal must be universal. Cordial and receptive, it should invite a meeting with man” MenShouldFirstsMeanMomentsFormSpiritNextForeverPiecesTreeStyleDesignObjectsProduceUniversalFunctionUnionsMeetingsEdgesWoodsRelateAppealsEvolveBoardsInvitesGrainFurnitureLive ForeverReceptiveDiscardedTransitoryCraftsmanSuccess Or FailureTree Of LifeArtisansWoodworking Author:George Nakashima
“The religion of art, like the religion of politics, was born from the ruins of Christianity. Art inherited from the old religion the power of consecrating things and endowing them with a sort of eternity; museums are our temples, and the objects displayed in them are beyond history. Politics--or more precisely, Revolution--co-opted the other function of religion: changing human beings and society. Art was an asceticism, a spiritual heroism; Revolution was the construction of a universal church.” HumansArtSpiritualPoliticsBornChurchHuman BeingsChristianityObjectsRevolutionUniversalEternityFunctionRuinsTemplesMuseumsConstructionHeroismAsceticism Book:1904-1912 Source: 1904-1912
“The standard "foundation" for mathematics starts with sets and their elements. It is possible to start differently, by axiomatising not elements of sets but functions between sets. This can be done by using the language of categories and universal constructions.” DoneLanguageElementsStandardsUniversalFunctionMathematicsFoundationCategoriesConstruction Book:Mathematics, form and function Source: Mathematics, form and function
“Technologically, modern man does everything he can do-he functions on this single boundary principle. Modern man, seeing himself as autonomous, with no personal-infinite God who has spoken, has no adequate universal to supply an adequate second boundary condition; and man being fallen is not only finite, but sinful. Thus man's pragmatically made choices have no reference point beyond human egotism. It is dog eat dog, man eat man, man eat nature.” MenHumansDoeMadeChoicesCan DoPrinciplesSeeingModernConditionsDogUniversalFunctionInfiniteEnvironmentalBoundariesFallenFiniteAdequateStewardshipEgotismModern ManAutonomous Author:Francis Schaeffer
“There is a universal element in man which he can assert by so acting as if the purpose of the Universe were also his purpose. It is the function of the supreme ordeals of life to develop in men this power, to give to their life this distinction, this height of dignity, these vast horizons.” IfsMenGivingPurposeUniverseActingElementsDignityUniversalFunctionSupremeHeightDistinctionHorizonOrdealsActing As If Book:Life and destiny Source: Life and destiny
“All societies are based on rules to protect pregnant women and young children. All else is surplusage, excrescence, adornment, luxury, or folly which can - and must - be dumped in emergency to preserve this prime function. As racial survival is the only universal morality, no other basic is possible. Attempts to formulate a "perfect society" on any foundation other than "Women and children first!" is not only witless, it is automatically genocidal. Nevertheless, starry-eyed idealists (all of them male) have tried endlessly - and no doubt will keep trying.” TryingFirstsChildrenYoungPerfectDoubtMoralityProtectSurvivalUniversalFunctionFoundationMalesLuxuryPreservesNo DoubtFollyPrimePregnantNeverthelessEmergenciesKeep TryingYoung ChildrenIdealistDumpedPregnant WomenAdornmentPerfect Society Book:Time Enough for Love Source: Time Enough for Love
“There are thousands of proteins in the cells, some of them very large chains of molecules. And the cell doesn't function if one of those chains of molecules isn't there, and you start looking at the complexity of life and the mystery of life, and then start thinking about things like the twenty universal constants, that if any one of them from Plank's minimum to the mass of a proton, if one of them is the tiniest bit off, there would be no life or possibility of it in the universe.” IfsThinkingWould BeUniverseBitsMysteryPossibilityMassUniversalFunctionTwentiesChainsCellsComplexityMinimumMoleculesProteinMystery Of LifeProton Author:Dean Koontz
“Assuming there is an intellect, we're clearly not this universal intellect or we would know it. So that's one function of soul.” KnowsSoulUniversalFunctionAssumingIntellect Author:Peter Adamson
“To think, analyze and invent, he [Pierre Menard] also wrote me, “are not anomalous acts, but the normal respiration of the intelligence. To glorify the occasional fulfillment of this function, to treasure ancient thoughts of others, to remember with incredulous amazement that the doctor universal is thought, is to confess our languor or barbarism. Every man should be capable of all ideas, and I believe that in the future he will be." (Jorge Luis Borges, "Pierre Menard, Author of Don Quixote, 1939)” ThinkingMenShouldBelieveIdeasRememberI BelieveNormalCapableDoctorsUniversalFunctionAncientEvery ManTreasureFulfillmentOccasionalGlorifyBarbarismAmazementBorgesRespiration Author:Jorge Luis Borges