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		"Every soul has some portion of 'nous', reason, a person cannot be a person without it." Isis Unveiled (Helena P. Blavatsky)

2		“Through reason man is enabled to elevate himself above the illusionary world of the senses and find eternal repose in perfect union with the Divine Essence.” The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall)

3		"Greek democracy was based on the idea that through enlightenment and reason each citizen would become capable of self-government and would make no moral errors." The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets (Barbara G. Walker)

4		"Intuition is the faculty of knowledge which results from instinct that is illumined by reason." Covenant of the Heart, Meditations of a Christian Hermeticist on the Mysteries of Tradition (Valentin Tomberg)

5		“Great is God that he has given us hands, and power to swallow, and a belly, and the power to grow without knowing it, and to draw our breath in sleep. At every moment we ought to sing these praises and above all the greatest and divinest praise, that God gave us the faculty to comprehend these gifts and to use the way of reason.” Epictetus, Discourses I, xvi The New Testament Background: Selected Documents (C. K. Barrett, editor)

6		"Reason has to do with finding the ground of being and the fundamental structuring of order of the universe." The Power of Myth (Joseph Campbell)

7		"Through his capacity for thinking, intelligence and logic, man can reason, deduce, enlarge or develop his consciousness." Healing Through Colour (Theo Gimbel)

8		"Epictetus taught that reason governed the world and was identical with God." Dagobert Runes A Treasury of Philosophy, Vol. 1 (Dagobert D. Runes, editor)

9		"Reason understands the laws of things – that is, spirit in nature. It can also raise itself above nature and, in the spirit, grasp from one side the divine essence underlying all nature." Mystics after Modernism (Rudolf Steiner)

10		"Intellect (nous): the highest faculty in man, through which – provided he is purified – he knows God or the inner essences or principles of created things by means of direct apprehension or spiritual perception….it understands divine truth by means of immediate experience, intuition, or simple cognition. The intellect dwells in the depths of the soul; it constitutes the innermost aspect of the heart." The Philokalia, volume 2 (various authors, compiled by St. Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain)

11		"And in all his works and in all things, man should consciously use his reason and always have a reasonable insight into himself, into his inner being, and grasp God within all things in the highest possible sense." Meister Eckhart (1260-1327) The Soul Afire, Revelations of the Mystics (H. A. Reinhold, editor)

12		"From very many objects in the world enlightened reason may discover the infinity of God the Creator." A Compendium of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg (Samuel M. Warren, compiler)

13		"By natural reason man can know God with certanity, on the basis of his works." Catechism of the Catholic Church (Various)

14		"Cosmic reason operates within the soul of man." Dagobert Runes A Treasury of Philosophy, Vol. 1 (Dagobert D. Runes, editor)

15		"Our reason is grounded in God, who is substantial nature." Revelations of Divine Love (Juliana of Norwich)

16		"We know the truth, not only by the reason, but also by the heart." Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), French mathematician and theologian The Lion Christian Quotation Collection (Hannah Ward & Jennifer Wild, compilers)

17		“As St. Paul said and as true reason has said, the ordered arrangement of the whole visible realm makes known the invisible things of God.” Pseudo-Dionysius, The Complete Works (John Farina, Editor-in-Chief)

18		"If we discover a complete unified theory of the universe, it should in time be understandable in broad principle by everyone, not just a few scientists. Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason – for then we should know the mind of God." Stephen Hawking (b. 1942) God, A Companion for Seekers (David Schiller)

19		"The slightest thing that happens takes place in accordance with nature and its reason." Chrysippus (ca. 280-207 bce), Stoic philosopher A Treasury of Philosophy, Vol. 1 (Dagobert D. Runes, editor)

20		"Reason quickens dormant springs, frees what is hidden….It presses toward the One that is all." Karl Jaspers (b. 1883), German philosopher A Treasury of Philosophy, Vol. 1 (Dagobert D. Runes, editor)

21		"Reason governs the world, and has consequently governed its history." Georg W. F. Hegel (1770-1831), German philosopher A Treasury of Philosophy, Vol. 1 (Dagobert D. Runes, editor)

22		"The highest perfection of man in this life lies in this: that he is so united to God that his soul with all its powers and faculties becomes immersed in Him and is one spirit with Him….The image of God which is imprinted upon the soul is found in the three powers of the reason, memory and will." On Union With God (Albertus Magnus (St. Albert the Great))

23		"It is our rule to begin by cleansing our souls from bad opinions by means of right reason." Clement of Alexandria, 'On Spiritual Perfection' Alexandrian Christianity (John E. L. Oulton, editor)

24		"The mind of man, cleansed of secondary and merely temporal concerns, beholds with the radiance of a cleansed mirror a reflection of the rational mind of God. Reason puts you in touch with God….the mind of man cleared of its fallibilities is sufficiently capable of the knowledge of God. All people in the world are thus capable because all people in the world are capable of reason." The Power of Myth (Joseph Campbell)

25		"The imagination is a power that is, as it were, intellectual. Appetite and impulse are obedient to imagination and to reason." Plotinus, 'The Soul' The Essential Plotinus (Translated by Elmer O'Brien, S.J.)