Appendix C — Catalogue: Illustrations & Quotations


A catalogue in two parts. Part I — Illustrations: every artwork reproduced across the corpus, grouped by book and section, with the page each appears on and its source file. Part II — Quotations: every attributed quotation in the corpus, alphabetical by author, with its source and where it is used.


Part I — Illustrations

Landing Page

Concordius — index

  • Caspar David Friedrich, Monk by the Sea (1808–10)  ·  friedrich-monk-by-the-sea.jpg

Series 2 — Concordius Papers

Series 2 — Concordius Papers — index

  • Flammarion engraving (1888)  ·  flammarion-engraving.jpg

Volume A

Volume A — The Foundation — index

  • Masaccio, The Trinity (c. 1427–28)  ·  masaccio-trinity.jpg

Paper A0: Modeling Reality as a Gelfand Triple: Two Complementary Projections of Complete Structure

  • David Hilbert (1912)  ·  hilbert-1912.jpg
  • Paul Dirac (1933)  ·  dirac-1933.jpg
  • John von Neumann, Los Alamos identity badge (c. 1943–45)  ·  von-neumann-los-alamos.jpg

Paper A1: Naming the Unnameable: From the Cogito to the Logos

  • Antonello da Messina, St. Jerome in His Study (c. 1474–75)  ·  antonello-jerome-study.jpg
  • Domenichino, Saint John the Evangelist (c. 1620s)  ·  domenichino-john-evangelist.jpg
  • Gustave Doré, The Empyrean (Paradiso, Canto 31, 1868)  ·  dore-rose-paradise.jpg

Paper A2: The Big Bang: When Spacetime Began

  • J. M. W. Turner, Light and Colour (Goethe’s Theory) — The Morning after the Deluge — Moses Writing the Book of Genesis (1843)  ·  turner-light-and-colour.jpg
  • WMAP nine-year cosmic microwave background (NASA / WMAP Science Team, 2012)  ·  wmap-cmb-9yr.png

Paper A2A–A2D: The Constraint Cascade

  • William Blake, The Ancient of Days (1794)  ·  blake-ancient-of-days.jpg
  • Michelangelo, The Separation of Light from Darkness (Sistine Chapel, 1512)  ·  michelangelo-separation.jpg
  • The dispersion of white light through a prism (after Newton’s Opticks, 1704)  ·  newton-prism.jpg
  • Albrecht Dürer, Melencolia I (1514)  ·  durer-melancholia.jpg

Paper A3: Φ Enters Creation: The Word Made Flesh

  • Christ Pantocrator  ·  pantocrator-cefalu.jpg

Paper A4: The Ascent of Man: From Particle to Body

  • É. L. Trouvelot, The Great Nebula in Orion (1882)  ·  trouvelot-orion-nebula.jpg
  • Henry De la Beche, Duria Antiquior — a more ancient Dorset (c. 1830)  ·  duria-antiquior.jpg
  • William Parsons (Lord Rosse), drawing of the Whirlpool ‘nebula’ M51 (1845)  ·  rosse-whirlpool-m51.jpg
  • Ernst Haeckel, Radiolaria — Kunstformen der Natur (1904)  ·  haeckel-radiolaria.webp
  • E. B. Wilson, diagram of a cell (from The Cell in Development and Inheritance, 1900)  ·  wilson-1900-cell.jpg
  • Ernst Haeckel, Discomedusae — Kunstformen der Natur (1904)  ·  haeckel-jellyfish.jpg
  • Trilobites, from James Dwight Dana’s Manual of Geology (1895)  ·  trilobite-plate.jpg
  • Charles R. Knight, Leaping Laelaps (1897)  ·  knight-laelaps.jpg
  • Charles R. Knight, Woolly Mammoth  ·  knight-mammoth.jpg
  • T. H. Huxley, frontispiece to ‘Evidence as to Man’s Place in Nature’ (1863)  ·  huxley-mans-place.jpg
  • František Kupka, reconstruction of the Neanderthal of La Chapelle-aux-Saints (1909)  ·  kupka-neanderthal.jpg
  • Geertgen tot Sint Jans, The Nativity at Night (c. 1490)  ·  geertgen-nativity-night.jpg

Paper A5: The Breath of Life: When Matter Becomes a Person

  • Michelangelo, The Creation of Adam (c. 1512)  ·  michelangelo-creation-of-adam.jpg

Paper A6: The Son of Man: Maximum Kenosis

  • Ford Madox Brown, Jesus Washing Peter’s Feet (1852–56)  ·  ford-madox-brown-washing-feet.jpg

Paper A6½: The Tomb

  • Hans Holbein the Younger, The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb (1521–22)  ·  holbein-dead-christ.jpg

Paper A7: The Resurrection: The World Made New

  • Titian, Noli me tangere (c. 1514)  ·  titian-noli-me-tangere.jpg

Volume B

Volume B — The Inheritance — index

  • Rembrandt, The Apostle Paul (c. 1657)  ·  rembrandt-apostle-paul.jpg

Paper B0: The Proof

  • Oliver Byrne, The First Six Books of the Elements of Euclid (1847)  ·  byrne-euclid.jpg

Volume C

Volume C — The Company — index

  • Fra Angelico, The Forerunners of Christ with Saints and Martyrs (c. 1423–24)  ·  fra-angelico-forerunners.jpg

Volume D

Volume D — The Inversion — index

  • Francisco de Goya, Saturn Devouring His Son (1819–23)  ·  goya-saturn.jpg

Volume E

Volume E — The Privation — index

  • Masaccio, The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden (c. 1425)  ·  masaccio-expulsion.jpg

Volume F

Volume F — The Ascension — index

  • Hieronymus Bosch, Ascent of the Blessed (c. 1505–15)  ·  bosch-ascent-of-the-blessed.jpg

Volume G

Volume G — The Practice — index

  • William Blake, Glad Day / The Dance of Albion (c. 1796)  ·  blake-glad-day.jpg

Paper G0 - Gratitude

  • Polychrome Bison  ·  altamira-bison.jpg

Paper G1 - Charity

  • Giotto di Bondone, The Lamentation of Christ (c. 1305)  ·  giotto-lamentation.jpg

Paper G2 - Ordered Love

  • Hans Holbein the Younger, Portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam (c. 1523)  ·  holbein-erasmus.jpg

Paper G2½: The First Grade Change

  • William Blake, Satan Smiting Job with Sore Boils (c. 1826)  ·  blake-satan-job.jpg

Paper G3 - Courage

  • Andrei Rublev, Trinity Icon (c. 1410)  ·  rublev-trinity.jpg

Paper G4 - Temperance

  • El Greco, The Burial of the Count of Orgaz (1586–88)  ·  el-greco-burial.jpg

Paper G5 - Diligence

  • Gian Lorenzo Bernini, The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa (1647–52)  ·  bernini-ecstasy.jpg

Paper G6 - Humility

  • William Blake, Glad Day / The Dance of Albion (c. 1796)  ·  blake-glad-day.jpg (reused)

Paper G6½: The Octave Change

  • William Blake, The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun (c. 1803–05)  ·  blake-great-red-dragon.jpg

Paper G7 - Full Integration — You Can’t Get There from Here

  • Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (c. 1818)  ·  friedrich-wanderer.jpg

Series 1 — Reasonablenessism

Series 1 — Reasonablenessism — index

  • Rembrandt van Rijn, Two Old Men Disputing (St. Peter and St. Paul in Discussion) (1628)  ·  rembrandt-two-old-men-disputing.jpg

Face A0: No Source Is Axiom

  • Johannes Vermeer, Woman Holding a Balance (c. 1664)  ·  feature-01-vermeer-balance.jpg

Face C3: The Steelman Is the Test

  • Diego Velázquez, The Forge of Vulcan (1630)  ·  feature-02-forge-of-vulcan.jpg

Face C0: Personal Experience as Testimony

  • Caravaggio, The Incredulity of Saint Thomas (c. 1601–2)  ·  feature-03-incredulity-of-thomas.jpg

Face D0: The Stance Applies to Itself

  • Diego Velázquez, Las Meninas (1656)  ·  feature-04-las-meninas.jpg

Face A1: Provenance Is Irrelevant to Truth-Value

  • Quentin Matsys, The Moneylender and His Wife (1514)  ·  feature-05-moneylender.jpg

Face C1: Convergence of Independent Witnesses

  • El Greco, The Pentecost (c. 1600)  ·  feature-06-pentecost.jpg

Face A2: The Self-Sealing Test

  • Ouroboros  ·  feature-07-ouroboros.png

Face C2: Universal Subjective Convergence Implies Objectivity

  • Joseph Wright of Derby, An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump (1768)  ·  feature-08-air-pump.jpg

Face B0: Explicit Confidence Tiers

  • The Great Chain of Being (1579)  ·  feature-09-great-chain-of-being.png

Face B1: Logic Where It Reaches; Concordance Where It Doesn’t

  • Olaus Magnus, Carta Marina (1539)  ·  feature-10-carta-marina.jpg

Face B2: Minimum Necessary Miracles

  • William of Ockham (1341)  ·  feature-11-william-of-ockham.jpg

Face D1: Fruit, Not Lineage

  • Caravaggio, Basket of Fruit (c. 1599)  ·  feature-12-basket-of-fruit.jpg

Series 3 — Structural Readings

Series 3 — Structural Readings — index

  • Hans Holbein the Younger, The Ambassadors (1533)  ·  holbein-the-ambassadors.jpg

Aphorisms

A Structural Reading of Aphorisms — index

  • Jacques-Louis David, The Death of Socrates (1787)  ·  david-death-of-socrates.jpg

Doctrine

A Structural Reading of Doctrine — index

  • Raphael, Disputation of the Holy Sacrament (Disputa) (1509–10)  ·  raphael-disputa.jpg

The Lucifer Rebellion: A Structural Reading

  • Gustave Doré, Lucifer (1866)  ·  dore-lucifer.jpg
  • William Blake, Satan Smiting Job with Sore Boils (1826)  ·  blake-satan-job.jpg (reused)
  • William Blake, The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun (c. 1805)  ·  blake-great-red-dragon.jpg (reused)

Film

A Structural Reading of Film — index

  • Georges Méliès, A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la lune) (1902)  ·  melies-trip-to-moon.jpg

Literature

A Structural Reading of Literature — index

  • Raphael, Parnassus (1511)  ·  raphael-parnassus.jpg

Memes

A Structural Reading of Memes — index

  • Bayeux Tapestry, Scene 32: ISTI MIRANT STELLAM  ·  bayeux-comet.jpg

Mysticism

A Structural Reading of Mysticism — index

  • Caspar David Friedrich, The Abbey in the Oakwood (1809–10)  ·  friedrich-abbey-oakwood.jpg

Philosophy

A Structural Reading of Western Philosophy — index

  • Jan Saenredam after Cornelis van Haarlem, Allegory of Plato’s Cave (c. 1604)  ·  platos-cave-saenredam.jpg

Sacred Texts

A Structural Reading of the Bible — index

  • Book of Kells, Chi-Rho page (Folio 34r) (c. 800)  ·  kells-chi-rho.png

A Structural Reading of the Bible by Theme — index

  • Jan van Eyck, Adoration of the Mystic Lamb (1432)  ·  van-eyck-mystic-lamb.jpg

A Structural Reading of the Bible: Revelation

  • Gustave Doré, The Empyrean (1868)  ·  dore-rose-paradise.jpg (reused)

Syntheses

A Structural Reading of Recurring Structures — index

  • Peter Apianus (Apianus), Schema huius praemissae diuisionis Sphaerarum (Antwerp, 1539)  ·  apianus-spheres.png

Visual Art

A Structural Reading of Visual Art — index

  • Albrecht Dürer, Self-Portrait (1500)  ·  durer-self-portrait.jpg

Blake — Satan Smiting Job: A Structural Reading

  • Blake, Satan Smiting Job  ·  blake-satan-job.jpg (reused)

Blake — The Great Red Dragon: A Structural Reading

  • Blake, The Great Red Dragon  ·  blake-great-red-dragon.jpg (reused)

Christ Pantocrator, Cefalù: A Structural Reading

  • Christ Pantocrator, Cefalù  ·  pantocrator-cefalu.jpg (reused)

Doré — Lucifer: A Structural Reading

  • Doré, Lucifer  ·  dore-lucifer.jpg (reused)

Doré — The Empyrean: A Structural Reading

  • Doré, The Empyrean — Paradiso Canto 31  ·  dore-rose-paradise.jpg (reused)

Hildegard — Scivias: A Structural Reading

  • Hildegard — Scivias illumination  ·  hildegard-scivias.jpg

The Ancient of Days: A Structural Reading

  • The Ancient of Days  ·  blake-ancient-of-days.jpg (reused)

The Creation of Adam: A Structural Reading

  • The Creation of Adam  ·  michelangelo-creation-of-adam.jpg (reused)

The School of Athens: A Structural Reading

  • The School of Athens  ·  raphael-school-of-athens.jpg

The Transfiguration: A Structural Reading

  • The Transfiguration  ·  fra-angelico-transfiguration.jpg

World and Experience

Auras and the Luminous Field

  • Christ Pantocrator (c. 1148)  ·  pantocrator-cefalu.jpg (reused)

Series 4 — Appendix

Series 4 — Appendix — index

  • Henry Gray, Anatomy of the Human Body  ·  gray-anatomy-appendix.png

Part II — Quotations

Every attributed quotation in the corpus, alphabetical by author (ordinary names by surname; “X of Y” names and sacred texts by their leading name; Scripture by book).

Acts 1:8 · Paper A7: The Resurrection

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

Acts 1:9 · Paper A7: The Resurrection

And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.

Acts 26:26 · Paper A7: The Resurrection

For the king knoweth of these things… for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him; for this thing was not done in a corner.

Acts 2:2–4 · Paper A7: The Resurrection

And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire… And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.

Acts 9:4–5 · Paper A7: The Resurrection

And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? … I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.

Amos 7:8 · Paper B3: The Principle

Behold, I will set a plumb line in the midst of my people.

Aristotle, Metaphysics XII.9 · Paper A0: Modeling Reality as a Gelfand Triple

Therefore it must be of itself that the divine thought thinks. And the act of contemplation is what is most pleasant and best. 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.

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics II.6 · Paper C4: The Restrained

Virtue is a mean between two vices, the one of excess and the other of defect.

Augustine, Confessions III.6 · Paper C1: The True

Truth, truth: how inwardly even then did the marrow of my soul pant after thee.

Augustine, Enchiridion · Volume E — The Privation

What is that which we call evil but the absence of good?

1 Corinthians 12:27 · Paper A7: The Resurrection

Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.

1 Corinthians 13:12 · Paper F7: Face to Face

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

Matthew 15:19 · Paper E0 — The Turn Inward

We know in part, and we prophesy in part… For now we see through a glass, darkly.

1 Corinthians 4:5 · Paper E6: Pride

Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who… will make manifest the counsels of the hearts.

1 Corinthians 8:2 · Paper F2: The Ceiling

And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.

2 Corinthians 13:1 · Feature C — The Witnesses

In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.

2 Corinthians 13:1 · Volume C — The Company

In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.

2 Corinthians 3:18 · Paper F4: The Crystallization

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

2 Corinthians 3:18 · Volume F — The Ascension

…are changed into the same image from glory to glory.

2 Corinthians 4:7 · Paper B6: The Exposure

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

Dante, Paradiso XXXIII · Paper A1: Naming the Unnameable

In its depths I saw ingathered, bound by love in one single volume, what lies scattered in leaves throughout the universe.

Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species (1859) · Paper A4: The Ascent of Man

There is grandeur in this view of life… from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.

Darwin, On the Origin of Species (closing sentence) · Paper C5: The Diligent

From so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.

Paul Davies, The Mind of God · Paper A2: The Big Bang

Science can explain the workings of the cosmos, but not the fact of its existence.

Richard Dedekind, “Was sind und was sollen die Zahlen?” (1888) · Paper B0: The Proof

Numbers are the free creations of the human mind.

Deuteronomy 19:15 · Paper C2½: The Witnesses Were Already There

At the mouth of two or three witnesses shall the matter be established.

Deuteronomy 29:29 · Paper D7: Evil

The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever.

Paul Dirac · Paper A2B: The Constraint Cascade

God used beautiful mathematics in creating the world.

Ecclesiastes 4:5–6 · Paper E5: Sloth and Overwork

The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh. Better is an handful with quietness, than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit.

Meister Eckhart, Sermon 57 · Paper A1: Naming the Unnameable

The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God’s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.

Albert Einstein, The World As I See It (1931) · Paper A2A: The Constraint Cascade

The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science.

T. S. Eliot, “Little Gidding” (1942) · Paper A7: The Resurrection

We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.

Ezekiel 36:26 · Paper F2½: The Opening

A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

Richard Feynman, The Character of Physical Law (1965) · Paper B4: The Prediction

If it disagrees with experiment, it is wrong. In that simple statement is the key to science.

attributed to Galileo Galilei · Feature A — The Measure

Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so.

Genesis 2:7 · Paper A5: The Breath of Life

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Genesis 3:4–5 · Paper D6½: The Fall

And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods.

Genesis 5:24 · Paper F6½: The Father’s Part

And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.

Gurdjieff (in Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous) · The Sifting Moon

Man is a machine. Everything happens to him. ‘To do’ means to act from one’s own will, and to be responsible for one’s actions. But man cannot do. He has no will of his own.

Hebrews 11:1 · Paper B2½: The Leap

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Hebrews 12:1 · Paper C6: The Host of Witnesses

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses…

Heraclitus, Fragment 2 · Volume A — The Foundation

The Logos is common; but most men live as if they had each a private wisdom.

Heraclitus, Fragment 50 · Paper A1: Naming the Unnameable

Listening not to me but to the Logos, it is wise to acknowledge that all things are one.

David Hilbert, “On the Infinite” (1926) · Paper A0: Modeling Reality as a Gelfand Triple

The infinite! No other question has ever moved so profoundly the spirit of man; no other idea has so fruitfully stimulated his intellect; yet no other concept stands in greater need of clarification than that of the infinite.

David Hilbert, 1930 · Paper A0: Modeling Reality as a Gelfand Triple

We must know. We will know.

inscription at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi · Feature D — The Mirror

Know thyself.

Isaiah 14:12 · Volume D — The Inversion

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!

Isaiah 14:12–14 · Paper D6: Lucifer

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! … For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven … I will be like the most High.

Isaiah 5:20 · Paper C7: The Inversion

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness.

James 1:14–15 · Paper E2½: Type and Degree

Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

James 4:10 · Paper E6½: Humility

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

Jeremiah 5:31 · Paper D2½: The Demagogue and the Crowd

The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?

Joan of Arc, at her trial, asked whether she knew she was in the grace of God · Paper C3: The Courageous

If I am not, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me.

John 1:1, 1:3 · Paper A3: Φ Enters Creation

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… All things were made through him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

John 20:16 · Paper A7: The Resurrection

Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master.

John 7:38 · Paper F5: The Overflow

He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

John Archibald Wheeler · Paper A2A: The Constraint Cascade

Behind it all is surely an idea so simple, so beautiful, that when we finally discover it, we will all say, ‘How could it have been otherwise?’

Kena Upanishad 2:3 · Paper A1: Naming the Unnameable

It is not known by those who know it; it is known by those who do not know it.

Laozi, Tao Te Ching, Ch. 42 · Paper A0: Modeling Reality as a Gelfand Triple

The Tao produced One; One produced Two; Two produced Three; Three produced All things.

Georges Lemaître, The Primeval Atom (1946) · Paper A2: The Big Bang

We may speak of this event as of a beginning. I do not say a creation. … Standing on a well-chilled cinder, we see the slow fading of the suns, and we try to recall the vanished brilliance of the origin of the worlds.

Luke 23:46 · Paper F6: The Dissolution

Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.

Luke 24:30–31 · Paper A7: The Resurrection

And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight.

Luke 3:1–2 · Paper A6: The Son of Man

Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea… Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came unto John.

Matthew 5:8 · Paper F3: The Heart

Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

Matthew 6:24 · Paper E4: Excess

No man can serve two masters… Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Micah 6:8 · Paper G6 - Humility

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

Isaac Newton, letter to Robert Hooke (1675) · Paper B2: The Test

If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.

Philippians 2:6–8 · Paper A6: The Son of Man

Who, being in the form of God… made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant… he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Philippians 3:14 · Paper E7: The Ascension Career

I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Philo of Alexandria, De Confusione Linguarum · Paper A1: Naming the Unnameable

The Logos is the image of God, through whom the whole world was framed.

Plato, Republic 509b · Paper C0: The Good

The Good is not being, but beyond being, surpassing it in dignity and power.

Plato, Republic, Book VII (518c–d) · Paper B7: The Return

The power to learn is present in everyone’s soul; the instrument with which each learns must be turned around, with the whole soul, away from the world of becoming, until it can bear to look upon what is — and upon the brightest of what is, the Good.

Proverbs 11:1 · Paper D4: The Great Purge

A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight.

Proverbs 24:11–12 · Paper D3: The Holocaust

If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death… if thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it?

Psalm 127:1 · Paper D5: The Great Leap Forward

Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it.

Psalm 139:23–24 · Paper C6½: The Crossing

Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Psalm 14:1 · Paper E1: The Lie

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.

Psalm 37:35–36 · Paper E2: The Vessel

I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.

Psalm 84:7 · Paper F0: The Four Instruments

They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.

Psalm 90:12 · Paper A2C: The Constraint Cascade

So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

Revelation 21:4–5 · Paper A7: The Resurrection

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. … Behold, I make all things new.

Revelation 21:8 · Paper E3: Cowardice

But the fearful, and unbelieving… shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone.

Revelation 22:20 · Paper A7: The Resurrection

He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

Revelation 2:10 · Paper A7: The Resurrection

Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.

Rig Veda I.164.46 · Paper A1: Naming the Unnameable

Truth is one; the sages call it by many names.

Rig Veda X.129 (Nasadiya Sukta) · Paper A2: The Big Bang

There was neither non-existence nor existence then; neither the realm of space nor the sky which is beyond. What stirred? Where? In whose protection? … Who really knows? Who will here proclaim it? Whence was it produced? Whence is this creation? The gods came afterwards, with the creation of this universe. Who then knows whence it has arisen?

Romans 1:25 · Paper D2: Mao Zedong

Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator.

Romans 3:1–2 · Paper B1: The Sacred Trust

What advantage then hath the Jew? … Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.

Rumi, Masnavi · Paper A1: Naming the Unnameable

I have lived on the lip of insanity, wanting to know reasons, knocking on a door. It opens. I’ve been knocking from the inside.

Rumi, Masnavi · Volume G — The Practice

Die before you die, so that when you die, you do not die.

Carl Sagan, Cosmos (1980) · Paper A4: The Ascent of Man

The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood… were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.

from an ancient homily for Holy Saturday · Paper A6½: The Tomb

Something strange is happening — there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began.

Shakespeare, Sonnet 116 · Paper C2: The Beautiful

Let me not to the marriage of true minds / Admit impediments. Love is not love / Which alters when it alteration finds.

Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, I.iii · The Devil Can Quote Scripture

The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago · Paper D0: Adolf Hitler

The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.

Tao Te Ching, ch. 48 · Paper F1: The Exchange

In the pursuit of learning, every day something is acquired. In the pursuit of the Tao, every day something is dropped.

the creed of the Party under Stalin · Paper D1: Joseph Stalin

The Party is always right.” “There is no higher authority than the Party.

1 Thessalonians 5:21 · Volume B — The Inheritance

Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.

Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus 7 · Feature B — The Boundary

Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.

Wittgenstein, A Lecture on Ethics (1929) · **

I wonder at the existence of the world. And I am then inclined to use such phrases as ‘how extraordinary that anything should exist’ or ‘how extraordinary that the world should exist.’

Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (6.44) · Series 2 — Concordius Papers

Not how the world is, is the mystical, but that it is.