“Some people, in order to discover God, read books. But there is a grea...” — Augustine of Hippo Quote

“Some people, in order to discover God, read books. But there is a great book: the very appearance of created things. Look above you! Look below you! Read it. God, whom you want to discover, never wrote that book with ink. Instead, He set before your eyes the things that He had made. Can you ask for a louder voice than that?”

“And what is this? I asked the earth, and it answered me, “I am not He”; and whatsoever are in it confessed the same. I asked the sea and the deeps, and the living creeping things, and they answered, “We are not thy God, seek above us.” I asked the moving air; and the whole air with his inhabitants answered, “Anaximenes was deceived, I am not God. “ I asked the heavens, sun, moon, stars, “Nor (say they) are we the God whom thou seekest.” And I replied unto all the things which encompass the door of my flesh: “Ye have told me of my God, that ye are not He; tell me something of Him.” And they cried out with a loud voice, “He made us. “ My questioning them, was my thoughts on them: and their form of beauty gave the answer.”

“So the will's desire for death is not a desire for nonexistence, but a desire for peace. When someone wrongly believes that he will not exist, he desires by nature to be at peace; that is, he desire to exist in a higher degree.”

“Let the Lord your God be your hope – seek for nothing else from him, but let him himself be your hope. There are people who hope from him riches or perishable and transitory honours, in short they hope to get from God things which are not God himself.”

“Except for God, perfection doesn’t exist, thus the production and consumption of petroleum, which have contributed to so many advances of humanity, has also brought some problems that are discussed here. This is, of course, true of any other natural resources and also of inventions, which bring benefits to humanity but also some unwelcome situations. But overall, however, the benefits outweigh the problems by a significant margin.”

“He’s a scientist. He’s never cried. He flips through Googled image searches of burn victims while he touches himself.”

“Альтруизм, сострадание, сочувствие, любовь, совесть, чувство справедливости — всё это скрепляет общество, и даёт людям основания для высокой самооценки. И всё это, как теперь можно уверенно полагать, имеет твёрдый генетический базис. Это хорошие новости. Плохие новости в том, что хотя эти качества в каком-то роде и осчастливливают человечество в целом, но они не сделали человека «хорошим» видом и не слишком надёжно служат людям до конца. Скорее наоборот, и теперь это яснее, чем когда-либо, как (точнее — почему?) моральные чувства используются с отвратительной гибкостью, включаются или выключаются в зависимости от личного интереса, и сколь непринуждённо мы часто не осознаём такие переключения. Новый взгляд на людей полагает их видом, обладающим великолепным набором моральных инструментов, но трагически склонным использовать их не по назначению, и находящимся в жалостном институциональном невежестве насчёт этих злоупотреблений.”

“One moment several things are possible, the next moment only one happens, and the rest don't exist. Except that other worlds have sprung into being, on which the did happen.”