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		"The idea of rotation is the keystone of most transcendent symbols: of the mediaeval 'Rota'; of the Wheel of Buddhist transformations; of the zodiacal cycle; of the myth of the Gemini; and of the 'opus' [work] of the alchemists. The idea of the world as a labyrinth or of life as a pilgrimage leads to the idea of the 'centre' as a symbol of the absolute goal of Man – Paradise regained….Pictorially, this central point is sometimes identified with the geometric centre of the symbolic circle." A Dictionary of Symbols (J. E. Cirlot)

2		"To say that God is Infinite is to say that He may be apprehended and described in an infinity of ways. That Circle whose centre is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere, may be approached from every angle with a certainty of being found." Mysticism (Evelyn Underhill)

3		"The basic forces create and sustain each other through the mysterious power of the center. From this center flows the evolution of all phenomena in a symmetrically radiating manner. This is a cosmogenic process, which is beautifully described in the Great Treatise of 'The Book of Changes.'" Mandala (Jose and Miriam Arguelles)

4		"God is immanent in every atom, all-pervading, all-sustaining, all-evolving; He is its source and its end, its cause and its object, its centre and circumference; it is built on Him as its sure foundation, it breathes in Him as its encircling space; He is in everything and everything in Him." The Ancient Wisdom (Annie Besant)

5		"In all symbols expressive of the mystic Centre, the intention is to reveal to Man the meaning of the primordial 'paradisal state' and to teach him to identify himself with the supreme principle of the universe. This centre is in effect Aristotle's 'unmoved mover'…Hindu doctrine declares that God resides in the centre, at that point where the radii of a wheel meet at its axis. In diagrams of the cosmos, the central space is always reserved for the Creator…Among the Chinese, the infinite being is frequently symbolized as a point of light with concentric circles spreading outwards from it." A Dictionary of Symbols (J. E. Cirlot)

6		"Every place is the center because God is an infinite, intelligible sphere – totally unlimited and undetermined. Wherever the Divine is, that is the center." The Mystic Hours, A Daybook of Interspiritual Wisdom & Devotion (Wayne Teasdale)

7		"The symbolism of the center is the formative principle not only of countries, cities, temples, and palaces but also of the humblest human dwelling." The Sacred and the Profane, The Nature of Religion (Mircea Eliade)

8		"Do all things as from a centre from which they are seen as one, as indeed they truly are. Thus will you give a new meaning to life. Above all things else this is the need of humanity." The Brotherhood of Angels & of Men (Geoffrey Hodson)

9		"The centre is that microcosmic point in which the macrocosm is concentrated." Ariadne's Clue, A Guide to the Symbols of Humankind (Anthony Stevens)

10		"The mystic 'Centre' [is] the non-apparent point which is the irradiating origin of every branch and shoot of the great Tree of the World." A Dictionary of Symbols (J. E. Cirlot)

11		"The Divine Life and Will is the centre of the whole universe." The Meaning of Masonry (W. L. Wilmshurst)

12		"The center of one's being coincides with the center of all things." Mysticism, Its History and Challenge (Bruno Borchert)

13		"The world is…a single sphere with countless centres from which it can be observed and from which action can emanate." Science and Christ (Pierre Teilhard deChardin)

14		"There is but one point in the universe where God communicates with us, and that is the center of our own soul." Archbishop Ullathorne, 'Humility and Patience' (19th century) The Book of Catholic Quotations (John Chapin, Editor)

15		"The centre is the indivisible monad of the self, the unity and wholeness of the experiencing subject." C. G. Jung: Letters, 1951-1961 (Gerhard Adler and Aniela Jaffe, editors)

16		"Go to the center and know the Whole. Follow this path." Mandala (Jose and Miriam Arguelles)

17		"Basically, the whole of the world's psychism [psyche] gravitates towards a single centre." Writings in Time of War (Pierre Teilhard deChardin)

18		"There is a saying in China that the nature of man is found there, in the center, where emotions are not yet manifest. In this center is the potentiality of everything to come." Lectures on the I Ching: Constancy and Change (Richard Wilhelm)

19		"At the center, at the Source of our being, we find all others – for our Source is also their Source. We find that all others are one with us in coming forth from creative love." Centering Prayer, Renewing an Ancient Christian Prayer Form (M. Basil Pennington, O.C.S.O.)

20		"The sphere is a whole, and hence it underlies the symbolic significance of all those images which partake of this wholeness, from the idea of the mystic 'Centre' to that of the world and eternity, or , more particularly, of the world-soul. In neo-platonic philosophy, the soul is explicitly related to the shape of the sphere, and the substance of the soul is deposited as quintessence around the concentric spheres of the four Elements. The same is true of the primordial man of Plato's Timaeus….Another important association is that of perfection and felicity. The absence of corners and edges is analogous to the absence of inconveniences, difficulties, and obstacles." A Dictionary of Symbols (J. E. Cirlot)

21		"Mind is the pivot of the human structure, or the centre on which the spititual and material parts of man are made to turn." A Treatise on Cosmic Fire (Alice A. Bailey)

22		"Thirty-three centuries ago, Ikhnaton, the pharaoh of Egypt, described the universe as a giant egg, a great cell of being in which he conceived the nucleus as the source of that creative force which he acknowledged as the life energy of God." The Human Aura (Kuthumi and Djwal Kul)

23		"Leibniz held with Bruno that each monadic center – whether an atom, a man, or a sun – is a mirror and replica of the entire cosmos, as well as the moving power in evolution." Editors Reincarnation: The Phoenix Fire Mystery (Cranston/Head, editors)

24		"The circle with the point in the centre is symbolic of the perfected man. He is rounded out; he is inclusive both vertically (soul contact) and horizontally (human relationship)." The Rays and The Initiations (Alice A. Bailey)

25		"In a twelfth-century hermetic text known as 'The Book of the Twenty-Four Philosophers' there is a statement that has been quoted, through the centuries, by a number of Christian thinkers – among others, Alan of Lille (1128-1202), Nicholas Cusanus (1401-1464), Rabelais (1490?-1553), Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), and Pascal (1632-1662), as well as Voltaire (1694-1778); to wit: 'God is an intelligible sphere, whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.'" Joseph Campbell Tarot Revelations (Joseph Campbell & Richard Roberts)