THE GREAT IDEAS, A SYNTOPICON, VOL. 1
Mortimer J. Adler, editor
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"Whatever the soul possesses, to that she comes bearing life." Socrates, quoted in Plato's 'Phaedo'
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"Only God, only an infinite being, can satisfy man's infinite craving for all the good there is."
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"Although the essences or forms of things are many, yet the truth of the divine intellect is one." Thomas Aquinas
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"If we attentively consider the constant regularity, order, and concatenation of natural things, the surprising magnificence, beauty, and perfection of the larger, and the exquisite contrivance of the smaller parts of the creation, together with the exact harmony and correspondence of the whole,….I say if we consider all these things, and at the same time attend to the meaning and import of the attributes, one, eternal, infinitely wise, good, and perfect, we shall clearly perceive that they belong to the Spirit who 'works all in all', and 'by whom all things consist.'" George Berkeley (1685-1745), 'The Principles of Human Knowledge'
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"Nothing is future to God. Everything that has ever happened or ever will is simultaneously together in the eternal present of the divine vision."
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"God is sovranly [sovereignly] present through all. We cannot think of something of God here and something else there,…there is an instantaneous presence everywhere….everything therefore [is] fully held by the divine." Plotinus
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"Immortality is, in a way, enjoyed in this life, for it is a present participation in eternity through the mind's knowledge of God."
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"A natural teleology seems to imply that every natural thing is governed by an indwelling form working toward a definite end, and that the whole of nature exhibits the working out of a divine plan or design."
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"The divine being is all being simultaneously." Thomas Aquinas
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"Man's nature as a social being tends to make him feel it one of his natural wants that there should be harmony between his feelings and aims and those of his fellow-creatures."
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"Spinoza defines God as 'Being absolutely infinite, that is to say, substance consisting of infinite attributes, each one of which expresses eternal and infinite essence."
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"The good of nothing less than the whole collectively or of all distributively can be taken as the common or general good."
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"Providence connects each one with its proper order." Boethius, quoted by Thomas Aquinas
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"Being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions." John Locke (1629-1695)
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"In the view of Nicolas of Cusa, the mystery of God's infinity is best expressed by affirming that in God all contradictions are somehow reconciled."
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"In the realm of Being, the trace of The One establishes reality: existence is a trace of The One." Plotinus
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"The successive phases of Spirit that animate the Nations…are themselves only steps in the development of the one Universal Spirit, which through them elevates and completes itself to a self-comprehending totality." Georg Hegel (1770-1831),
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"Love is everywhere in the universe – in all things which have their being from the bounty and generosity of God's creative love and which in return obey the law of love in seeking God or in whatever they do to magnify God's glory."
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"In Aristotle's cosmology, the circular motions of the celestial spheres, and through them all other cycles of natural change, are sustained eternally by the prime mover, which moves all things by the attraction of its perfect being."
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"Human kingdoms are established by divine providence." St. Augustine
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"Charity, according to its very nature, causes peace; for love is a unitive force." Thomas Aquinas
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"Love is all opposites – the only reality."
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"Spirit is immortal; with it there is no past, no future, but an essential now. This necessarily implies that the present form of Spirit comprehends within it all earlier steps….The grades which Spirit seems to have left behind it, it still possesses in the depths of its present." Georg Hegel (1770-1831),
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"As God is the supernatural efficient cause of all created things, so God is also the supernatural final cause – the end or ultimate good toward which all creatures tend." Baruch Spinoza
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"Justice is esential to the very life and health of the soul."
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