John Dee Quotes

All things in the world come from being. And being comes from non-being.

General principles... are to the facts as the root and sap of a tree are to its leaves.

There are big questions science doesn't answer, such as why is there something rather than nothing? There can't be a scientific answer to that because it's the answer that precedes science.

Philosophy [nature] is written in that great book which ever is before our eyes -- I mean the universe -- but we cannot understand it if we do not first learn the language and grasp the symbols in which it is written. The book is written in mathematical language, and the symbols are triangles, circles and other geometrical figures, without whose help it is impossible to comprehend a single word of it; without which one wanders in vain through a dark labyrinth.

To say that the universe exists is silly, because it says that the universe is one of the things in the universe. So there's something wrong with questions like, "What caused the Universe to exist?"

Philosophy is the true mother of science.

As ten millions of circles can never make a square, so the united voice of myriads cannot lend the smallest foundation to falsehood.

There is nothing strange in the circle being the origin of any and every marvel.

The anthropic principle is an unfortunate name as it implies something about humanity.

I finally discovered the source of all movement, the unity from which all diversities of movement are born.

The biggest questions that always have perplexed me are "Where do I come from?" and "Where am I going?" The "Where do I come from?" question, which I think I largely am answering now, is about what quantum physics teaches us. If you try to find your source, you are not going to find it in a tiny little particle that began with your parents commingling.

Every doctrine has a theory of the beginning.

The wise person dines on something more subtle: He eats the understanding that the named was born from the unnamed, that all being flows from non-being, that the describable world emanates from an indescribable source.

In the void is virtue, and no evil. Wisdom has existence, principle has existence, the Way has existence, spirit is nothingness.

The monad, of which we shall speak here, is nothing but a simple substance which enters into compounds; simple, that is to say, without parts.

Things are all made from nothing; hence their true source is nothing.

It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn; and whether it was the outward substance of things or the inner spirit of nature and the mysterious soul of man that occupied me, still my inquiries were directed to the metaphysical, or in its highest sense, the physical secrets of the world.

I am present at the sowing of the seed of the world. With a geometry of sunbeams, the soul lays the foundations of nature.

All parts of knowledge have their origin in metaphysics, and finally, perhaps, revolve into it.

Maybe you are searching among the branches, for what only appears in the roots.

In fact, philosophy is universal in scope. No man can live without a world view; therefore, there is no man who is not a philosopher.

The philosopher says that God's knowledge is the measure of things, and that things are the measure of man's knowledge.

THE PRESOCRATIC PROBLEM [all snap flags] Parmenides named his gun The Hot Power of the Stars. His gun was one, uncreated, imperishable, timeless, changeless, perfect, spherical. Spherical was the problem.

For, to my mind, this is a certain principle, that nothing is here treated of but the visible form of the world. He who would learn astronomy, and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere. (on commenting the text of Genesis 1:6)

Truth is one, the sages speak of it by many names.