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		"Nature is an artist that works from within."

2		"Although nature's forms are varied, the vast differences of form are contrasted by a simplicity of likeness in process. Our internal processes mirror nature's internal processes and vice versa."

3		"Subatomic particles are not 'things' that build one upon the other until they form large aggregates. Rather, they are part of a union of relations."

4		"A structure or system grows by means of itself."

5		"In the thick of our views exists a common pattern of perception….the pattern is a weave of united processes. We now need to see this 'weave' in the human nervous system and the cosmos's system alike. The wider and sharper our vision becomes – and the more flexible our definitions of these systems become – the more the conceptual boundaries between the beholder (brain) and the beheld (universe) will overlap."

6		"As open systems, the brain and cosmos 'live' in the way we know all life-giving processes live - 'experiencing' their environments through flowing exchanges of information, matter, and energy."

7		"Most opposites, when stretched far enough apart, paradoxically come full circle only to be rejoined at some point of confluence, some moment or area of tenseless harmony."

8		"The philosopher and paleontologist Pierre Teilhard deChardin (1881-1955) theorized that humankind strives toward mental, social, and spiritual unity – perhaps like the smallest atomies, which exhibit the behavior of what might be called 'striving'. They strive to be fulfilled."

9		"For millenia, each picture or model of the microcosm and macrocosm has rendered a different aspect of our connection with particulate matter and celestial systems….They speak of our cosmic connection in poetic verse, as in the prophetic Indian Vedic scriptures….Theoretical studies in modern cosmology sing of this connection in verses of mathematical equations, interlacing insights from astrophysics and astronomical observations."

10		"Like the language of pure mathematics, which can describe abstract nth-dimensional processes and forms, the symbolic language of metaphorms is also multidimensional. It operates simultaneously on many planes of associations, nuances, and meanings."

11		"From cell-assemblies to thought-assemblies the cosmos unfolds inside us – and we, inside it."

12		"Out of all things there comes a unity, and out of a unity all things." Heraclitus

13		"We're born informed."

14		"We are a manifestation of the universe - one of its many forms...as numerous ancient cultures remind us and as contemporary science observes. We share the properties and processes of the universe - in all its manifestations."

15		"Each theory may have evolved from a unique angle of analysis, but ultimately our theories form from - and refer to - a sort of unified, collective mind."

16		"It is because of the interactions of all the parts of any society (of living cells or galaxies) that they work."

17		"The 'Wheel of the Law' sculpture in Buddhist art explores with astute realism the unproportioned, timeless space. Similarly, 'The Wheels of the Sun Chariot' of Surya Deul Temple at Konorak, in northeastern India, interprets time as a cyclical form – where beginnings and ends are arbitrary points. You will find similar interpretations in particle physics and cosmology which postulate a cyclical pattern to the creation/re-creation of the cosmos. The reason for this repetition of themes may rest on one straightforward fact: Our minds, like the universe, probably undergo similar cyclical transformations in their evolution. And so everything we theorize regarding this pattern of evolution takes place inside us. Since the human mind invented these notions, they probably reflect in form and in substance the nature of the mind itself."

18		"This ageless thought of a 'world without end' implies that the brain, like its celestial godmother, is a continuum - a timeless world in which matter and energy are the same throughout. The microtime, with which we measure the birth and death of our bodies, and the macrotime, which we use to determine the birthdays and the deathdates of celestial bodies, are conceptual illusions. Matter continually reorganizes itself in one form or another."

19		"We cannot possibly see the whole of what we are, if we persist in seeing the parts of our nature and nature's parts as disassociated entities. Defining things without considering their relationships with other things is a fatal flaw in descriptive analysis."

20		"A creative system can accommodate abrupt changes and catastrophes with its agility. All life forms are creative. The cosmos is a form of life – one that is as agile as the life forms it has created."

21		"He treated the microscopic scene as though it were alive and were inhabited by beings which felt and did and hoped and tried even as we do....A nerve-cell...'groped to find another'!....Listening to him I asked myself how far this capacity for anthro-pomorphizing might not contribute to his success as an investigator." Charles Sherrington, Nobel laureate, writing about Nobel laureate Santiago Ramon y Cajal

22		"If we are in fact the 'physical reflections' of the cosmos, then knowledge of the cosmos is applicable to our self-knowledge. This knowledge makes life meaningful."

23		"Once you accept the world-view where everything is connected, no aspect of reality is seen as being separate and unrelated. Neither the universals nor the particulars of matter and nonmatter, brain and mind – nor the languages we use to describe these things, science and art – are seen to be in conflict with one another. There is only confluence."

24		"The mandals [is] a sacred, mystical symbol of the universe."

25		"Scholars of Eastern mythology point out that the universe was conceived as a 'great mother' who bore many worlds - and in whose womb will form other worlds, in a continuous circle of novel creations.