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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Introductory Metaphysics
Avery R. Dulles, James M. Demske, Robert J. O'Connell
A course combining matter treated in ontology, cosmology and natural theology.

1 "Plato argues for a hierarchy of Forms or Ideas, in which sensible images 'participate'. In the 'Timaeus', he makes them exemplary causes, models for the Divine Artificer or demiurge, in fashioning things from eternally existing matter."

2 "There is one being – God – whose essence is identical with His existence. Thus, all other beings are like God in that they exist."

3 "No creature can be satisfactorily understood without constant reference to God. For all beings proceed from Him, are directed by Him, and tend toward Him as their last end."

4 "The whole totality of beings is somehow one and many."

5 "The greatness of the human intellect lies in the fact that there is nothing completely outside its range. In this sense, it is a transcendental and quasi-infinite faculty."

6 "Existence is a fundamental 'energy' of being, whereby it keeps 'be-ing.'"

7 "God Concurs Simultaneously with All Activities of Contingent Beings."

8 "The ancients…handed down the tradition, that whatever things are said to be, are composed of one and many…this unity we shall find in everything." Plato, 'Philebus'

9 "Underlying the evident multiplicity and diversity of beings, there is also a subtle unity. All these things, be they mineral, animal, or vegetable, be they plants, men, or merely atoms, are somehow linked together by a common bond of being."

This body of quotes compiled by JoAnn Kite