The Metaphysics Quotes

“The investigation of the truth is in one way hard, in another easy.”

“So while a thing in a finite time cannot come in contact with things quantitatively infinite, it can come in contact with things infinite in respect of divisibility: for in this sense the time itself is also infinite.”

“For it is owing to their wonder that men both now begin and at first began to philosophize; they wondered originally at the obvious difficulties, then advanced little by little and stated difficulties about the greater matters . . . they were pursuing science in order to know, and not for any utilitarian end.”

“It is clear, then, that wisdom is knowledge having to do with certain principles and causes. But now, since it is this knowledge that we are seeking, we must consider the following point: Of what kind of principles and of what kind of causes is wisdom the knowledge?”

“We should not only be grateful to those in whose opinions we share but also to those who have gone astray. For even the latter have contributed something, since they have prepared the condition for us.”

“For nothing is moved at haphazard, but in every case there must be some reason present.”

“If, then, God is always in that good state in which we sometimes are, this compels our wonder; and if in a better this compels it yet more. And God is in a better state. And life also belongs to God; for the actuality of thought is life, and God is that actuality; and God’s self-dependent actuality is life most good and eternal.”

“[I]t is rather the case that we desire something because we believe it to be good than that we believe a thing to be good because we desire it. It is the thought that starts things off.”

“Metaphysics involves intuitive knowledge of unprovable starting-points concepts and truth and demonstrative knowledge of what follows from them.”

“We prefer sight to almost everything else. The reason is that this, most of all the senses, makes us know and brings to light many differences between things.”

“All men by nature desire to know.”

“If nothing can be truly asserted, even the following claim would be false, the claim that there is no true assertion.”

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”

“Metaphysics is universal and is exclusively concerned with primary substance . . . And here we will have the science to study that which is, both in its essence and in the properties which it has.”

“We have said that primary science is the science of these things in so far as they, its subjects, are things that are, and not in regard to any other feature. Hence both physics and mathematics are to be considered mere parts of total understanding.”

“No one is able to attain the truth adequately, while, on the other hand, no one fails entirely, but everyone says something true about the nature of all things, and while individually they contribute little or nothing to the truth, by the union of all a considerable amount is amassed.”

“The devotee of myth is in a way a philosopher, for myth is made up of things that cause wonder.”

“If things do not turn out as we wish, we should wish for them as they turn out.”

“And a man who is puzzled and wonders thinks himself ignorant.”

“For if anyone says that all things are true then he is making even the negation of his own claim true, so that his own statement in turn is not true . . . while if anyone says that all things are false, then he is making his own claim to be false.”