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		"Self-knowledge reveals to the soul that its natural motion is not, if uninterrupted, in a straight line, but circular, as around some inner object, about a center, the point to which it owes its origin. If the soul knows this, it will move around this center from which it came, will cling to it and commune with it as indeed all souls should….for divinity consists in being attached to the center." Plotinus, 'The Good or The One' The Essential Plotinus (Translated by Elmer O'Brien, S.J.)

2		"The Alcoran [Koran] describes Allah's character and attributes thus: 'He alone is self-existent; has no rival; is from everlasting to everlasting; fills the universe with his presence; is the center in which all things unite.'" A Dictionary of Freemasonry (Robert Macoy)

3		"In the process of evolution atoms themselves gravitate towards other and greater central points, becoming in their turn electrons. Thus, every form is but an aggregate of smaller lives." The Consciousness of the Atom (Alice A. Bailey)

4		"God fashioned the sphere of light round himself. 'God is an intelligible sphere whose centre is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere'(cf. St. Bonaventure, Itinerarium, 5). The point symbolizes light and fire, also the Godhead in so far as light is an 'image of God' or an 'exemplar of the Deity.' This spherical light modelled on the point is also the shining or illuminating body that dwells in the heart of man." Collected Works (Carl Jung)

5		"Mandalas have been used by many cultures to represent the creation of the universe. Carl Jung has theorized that mandalas represent centering, the unification of parts of the psyche." Seeing With the Mind's Eye (Mike Samuels, M.D. and Nancy Samuels)

6		"The organizing center from which the regulatory effect stems seems to be a sort of 'nuclear atom' in our psychic system. One could also call it the inventor, organizer, and source of dream images. Jung called this center the 'Self'….Throughout the ages people have been intuitively aware of the existence of such an inner center. The Greeks called it man's inner 'daimon'; in Egypt it was expressed by the concept of the 'Ba-soul'; and the Romans worshiped it as the 'genius' native to each individual. In more primitive societies it was often thought of as a protective spirit embodied within an animal or a fetish." Marie Louise vonFranz Man and His Symbols (Carl Jung)

7		"In both dreams and religion, the relation of the center to the mandala expresses the relation between the potential and the actual." Michael Flanagin, Ph.D., 'The Mandala in Jungian Psychotherapy' Mandala, Luminous Symbols for Healing (Judith Cornell, Ph.D.)

8		"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)

9		"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)

10		"When each man, by virtue of a conception of the world that demands only a minimum of metaphysics, and that is supported, moreover, by the greatest number of arguments from experience, will admit that his true being is not limited to the narrow boundaries of his limbs and his historical existence but that he forms part, body and soul, of the process that drives the universe, then he will understand that, in order to remain faithful to himself he must devote himself to the task demanded of him by life as to a personal and sacred duty. Then he will regain belief in the world, in a world whose totality cannot perish, and also faith in a supreme centre of personalization, concentration and cohesion, the only point at which the salvation of the universe can be conceived to take place." The Vision of the Past (Pierre Teilhard deChardin)

11		"Smaller than the small, I am that centre within you, the needle's eye through which all the threads of the universe are drawn." Paul Murray (b. 1947), Dominican priest and lecturer on mystical theology God, A Companion for Seekers (David Schiller)

12		Always in the centre shall come a new Word." Mexican aphorism From Bethlehem to Calvary (Alice A. Bailey)

13		“One can reach the center directly from any point of the compass.” C. G. Jung, ‘Approaching the Unconscious’ Man and His Symbols (Carl Jung)

14		"All religious traditions assume that there is a sacred center to all things. The name differs from religious form to religious form, but it is clear that there is an inherent tendency for human beings to encounter this sacred center." One Spirit, Many Peoples, A Manifesto for Earth Spirituality (Stephen Harrod Buhner)

15		"When we are acting from a centered place – the open heart – we can access our own inner wisdom and open to divine healing energy as well." Who Do You Think You Are? The Healing Power of Your Sacred Self (Carlos Warter, M.D., Ph.D.)

16		"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)

17		"There is a root or depth in you from whence all these faculties come forth as lines from a centre, or as branches from the body of a tree. The depth is called the centre, the fund, or bottom of the soul. This depth is the unity, the Eternity, I had almost said the infinity of your soul, for it is so infinite that nothing can satisfy it, or give it any rest, but the infinity of God." William Law (1688-1761), English clergyman, 'The Spirit of Prayer' Mysticism (Evelyn Underhill)

18		"The symbolism of the 'Centre', which plays a considerable part in every religion, is integral with the symbolism of Heaven: it is at the 'Centre of the World' that the break through the plane may take place, making it possible to enter into Heaven." Myths, Dreams and Mysteries, The Encounter Between Contemporary Faiths and Archaic Realities (Mircea Eliade)

19		"Each cell divides (by mitotic or amitotic division) and gives birth to another cell similar to itself. First, a single centre; then two. Everything in the subsequent development of life stems from this potent primordial phenomenon." The Phenomenon of Man (Pierre Teilhard deChardin)

20		"The centre of a circle is regarded as the indivisible source of all the radii extending from it;…pre-existing in God are all the inner essences of created things." St. Maximos the Confessor, 'Second Century on Theology' The Philokalia, volume 2 (various authors, compiled by St. Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain)

21		"Every point is equally the center of a circle whose radius is infinite." The Inner Life (Charles W. Leadbeater)

22		"All things proceed from God, who is at once the centre and the circumference from which all existing lines proceed and at which all end up." Juana Ines de la Cruz (1651-1695), Mexican nun, poet and scholar The Lion Christian Quotation Collection (Hannah Ward & Jennifer Wild, compilers)

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

24		"Stay at the centre of the circle and let all things take their course." Lao-Tzu Revelations: The Wisdom of the Ages (Paul Roland)

25		"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)