Many / One

A database of 11,000+ illuminated guiding quotations in 40 categories from 600+ inspired books by our most brilliant and influential authors.
Compiled by JoAnn Kite

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1		"Evolution does not cease with achievement of the human condition, but becomes internalized as the search for union with the true, spiritual Self. The goal of evolution, which is self-development, self-realization, and self-transcendence, is therefore inherent in its processes." Emily B. Sellon and Renee Weber, 'Theosophy and The Theosophical Society'

2		"The doctrine of the microcosm – the human as the universe in miniature – is a common theme among the esoteric teachings, and among its other qualities, this idea has the virtue of theoretically joining the inner life in all its possible levels to the world of nature and beyond, even up to the Creator." Antoine Faivre

3		"In the structure of the world and in nature generally,…purpose and unconscious teleology can be recognized….The universe is a kind of organism." Dietrich vonEngelhardt, 'Natural Science in the Age of Romanticism'

4		"Nature and matter, understood alchemically, can only be one and animated. Any demonstrative process that seeks to prove the opposite is mistaken not only in its manner but also in its mode of observation." Francoise Bonardel, 'Alchemical Esotericism and the Hermeneutics of Culture'

5		"Eternal nature is the Being in which the divinity is incarnated in order to render itself visible."

6		"Christianity, Hinduism, Kabbalah, alchemy…all admitted the existence of a unique 'ubiquitous agent', flowing through everything and from which everything issued. In other words, they already knew that matter was one and living." Francoise Bonardel, 'Alchemical Esotericism and the Hermeneutics of Culture'

7		"According to Philo, it is the Logos or Word that is the mediator by which God sees the plan of the world and according to which he creates it." Antoine Favre

8		"God is the hidden treasure who desires to be known and created the world to this end." Pierre Deghaye, 'Jacob Boehme and His Followers'

9		"In equal respect for nature and the spirit lies the key to every true art of living." C. G. Carus, 'Lebenserinnerungen und Denkwurdigkeiten'

10		"The fundamental unity and coherence of the universe are displayed most impressively in the order that pervades all of nature, not only in the uniformity of physical laws but also in the musical and mathematical proportions of all natural forms, from crystals and plants to spiral galaxies. This Pythagorean/Platonic conception of an underlying harmonic order is revealed in the persistent geometry of dynamic form." Emily B. Sellon and Renee Weber, 'Theosophy and The Theosophical Society'

11		"Wisdom is the love of God. It is the desire of love that aspires only to give itself, to communicate itself." Pierre Deghaye, 'Jacob Boehme and His Followers'

12		"A potential immensity of love and wisdom is inherent in the structure of the human self." Antoine Faivre

13		"St. Augustine taught that once the soul is noble, harmonious, and ordered, it is capable of seeing the source from which all truth flows." Antoine Faivre

14		"If we know the main sections, the basic actions, the central pillar of mathesis in number and quality, so we know for certain that the same number and quality of basic actions, main sections, must recur in nature." L. Oken, 'Abriss des Systems der Biologie'

15		"Anyone who finds in infinite nature nothing but one whole, one complete poem, in whose every word, every syllable, the harmony of the whole rings out…has won the highest prize of all." J. W. Ritter, 'Fragmente aus dem Nachlasse eines jungen Physikers', 2:205

16		"Paracelsus…teaches that the perceptible universe looks toward a divine reality that it strives to imitate."

17		"The universe seems to be pervaded by pairs of opposites, but…they are not independent realities but rather polar aspects of the one unity, in which they are synthesized." Emily B. Sellon and Renee Weber, 'Theosophy and The Theosophical Society'

18		"Ideas are the original forms (formae principales), the stable and immutable ground of things….They are a part of divine intelligence."

19		"The human form is the symbol of all symbols." Pierre Deghaye, 'Jacob Boehme and His Followers'

20		"Imagination (imaginatio is related to 'magnet', magia, imago) is a tool for the knowledge of the self, of the world, of myth; it is the eye of fire penetrating the surface of appearances in order to make meanings, connections, burst forth, to render the invisible visible…and to forge a link with a treasure that contributes to the enlargement of our prosaic vision."

21		"The archaic level of spirituality survives within the later traditions as a foundational stratum, preserved in ritual and myth."

22		"The Intellect (Intellectus) sees opposites unified."

23		"Throughout nature the formal principle of thesis-antithesis or dualism and the overcoming of it is observed." Dietrich vonEngelhardt, 'Natural Science in the Age of Romanticism'

24		"Eternal nature is the kernel hidden within our apparent nature." Pierre Deghaey, 'Jacob Boehme and His Followers'

25		"Nemesius, bishop of Emese, in his treatise 'De natura hominis' (400?) is one of the first basic Christian writings to view the human being as a microcosm, that is, as a miniature universe, a link between the material and spiritual worlds." Antoine Faivre