Sunday, August 10, 2008

Giordano Bruno


1. “All things are in all.”
2. “All things are in the universe, and the universe is in all things: we in it, and it in us: and in this way everything concurs in a perfect unity.”
3. “Anything we take in the universe, because it has in itself that which is All in All, includes in its own way the entire soul of the world, which is entirely in any part of it.”
4. “Everything that makes diversity of kinds, of species. differences, properties, everything that consists in generation, decay, alteration and change, is not an entity, but condition and circumstances of entity and being, which is one, infinite, immobile, subject, matter, life, soul, truth and good.
5. “For nature is not merely present, but is implanted within things, distant from none . . And while the outer face of things changeth so greatly, there flourisheth the origin of being more intimately within all things that they themselves. The fount of all kinds, Mind, God, Being, One, Truth, Destiny, Reason, Order.”
6. “It is manifest . . . that every soul and spirit hath a certain continuity with the spirit of the universe, so that it must be understood to exist and to be included not only there where it liveth and feeleth, but it is also by its essence and substance diffused throughout immensity. . . The power of each soul is itself somehow present afar in the universe . . Naught is mixed, yet is there some presence.”
7. “It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
8. ”It is then unnecessary to investigate whether there be beyond the heaven Space, Void or Time. For there is a single general space, a single vast immensity which we may freely call Void; in it are innumerable globes like this one on which we live and grow. This space we declare to be infinite, since neither reason, convenience, possibility, sense-perception nor nature assign to it a limit. In it are an infinity of worlds of the same kind as out own.”
9. "It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people."
10. "It may be you fear more to deliver judgment upon me than I fear judgment."
11. “Of the eternal incorporeal substance nothing is changed, is formed or deformed, but there always remains only that thing which cannot be a subject of dissolution, since it is not possible that it be a subject of composition, and therefore, either of itself or by accident, it cannot be said to die.”
12. "The beginning, middle, and end of the birth, growth, and perfection of whatever we behold is from contraries, by contraries, and to contraries; and whatever contrariety is, there is action and reaction, there is motion, diversity, multitude, and order, there are degrees, succession and vicissitude."
13. ”The one infinite is perfect, in simplicity, of itself, absolutely, nor can aught be greater or better, This is the one Whole, God, universal Nature, occupying all space, of whom naught but infinity can give the perfect image or semblance.”
14. “The Universe is one, infinite, immobile. The absolute potential is one, the act is one, the form or soul is one, the material or body is one, the thing is one, the being in one, one is the maximum and the best . . . It is not generated, because there is no other being it could desire or hope for. since it comprises all being. It does not grow corrupt. because there is nothing else into which it could change, given that it is itself all things. It cannot diminish or grow, since it is infinite.”
15. ”This whole which is visible in different ways in bodies, as far as formation, constitution, appearance, colours and other properties and common qualities, is none other than the diverse face of the same substance - a changeable, mobile, face, subject to decay, of an immobile, permanent and eternal being.”
16. ”Thus is the infinity of All every bringing forth anew, and even as infinite space is around us, so is infinite potentiality, capacity, reception, malleability, matter.”
17. “To a body of infinite size there can be ascribed neither centre nor boundary… Thus the Earth no more than any other world is at the centre.”
18. “Ultimately it is divinely true that contraries are within contraries, wherefore it is not difficult to understand that each thing is within every other.”
19. "We delight in one knowable thing, which comprehends all that is knowable; in one apprehensible, which draws together all that can be apprehended; in a single being that includes all, above all in the one which is itself the all."
20. ”When we consider the being and substance of that universe in which we are immutably set, we shall discover that neither we ourselves nor any substance doth suffer death. for nothing is in fact diminished in its substance, but all things, wandering through infinite space, undergo change of aspect.”