Goldwin Smith Quotes

Being is born of not being.

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

Why are there beings at all, instead of Nothing?

Something cannot emerge from nothing.

From What-is all the world of things was born But What-is sprang in turn from What-is-not.

To be is to be related.

Metaphysics must be based on what exists, for it has the task of explicating it.

Reality is reality. It transcends every concept. There is no concept which can adequately describe it, not even the concept of interdependence.

No one knows how this world came into being. It is a creation of consciousness itself. It's extraordinary, a mystery.

I am all that there is of the most real.

Is the ground a philosophical concept? Has mind a relationship to the ground? Is it an idea to be investigated? Is the ground put together by thought?

That the world is, is the mystical.

Being that can be understood is language.

God is not a demiurge [demigod] or a magician, but the Creator who gives being to all entities.

There is no seeing. Seeing is only being.

Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing?

The leading edge of reality is mind, and mind is the primary substratum of being.

General Systems Theory, a related modern concept [to holism], says that each variable in any system interacts with the other variables so thoroughly that cause and effect cannot be separated. A simple variable can be both cause and effect. Reality will not be still. And it cannot be taken apart! You cannot understand a cell, a rat, a brain structure, a family, a culture if you isolate it from its context. Relationship is everything.

Being is only Being for Dasein.

You are what exists before all stories.

For any particular thing, ask: What is it in itself? What is its nature?

Everything is exactly as it is for a reason. The crumb on your table is no mystical reminder of this morning's cookie, it is there because you have chosen not to remove it. No exceptions.

Beyond positive and negative, what is Reality?

Well, sir, if things are real, they’re there all the time." "Are they?" said the Professor; and Peter did not quite know what to say.