G Bruno Quotes

Why should we place Christ at the top and summit of the human race? Was he kinder, more forgiving, more self-sacrificing than Buddha? Was he wiser, did he meet death with more perfect calmness, than Socrates? Was he more patient, more charitable, than Epictetus? Was he a greater philosopher, a deeper thinker, than Epicurus? In what respect was he the superior of Zoroaster? Was he gentler than Lao-tsze, more universal than Confucius? Were his ideas of human rights and duties superior to those of Zeno? Did he express grander truths than Cicero? Was his mind subtler than Spinoza’s? Was his brain equal to Kepler’s or Newton’s? Was he grander in death – a sublimer martyr than Bruno? Was he in intelligence, in the force and beauty of expression, in breadth and scope of thought, in wealth of illustration, in aptness of comparison, in knowledge of the human brain and heart, of all passions, hopes and fears, the equal of Shakespeare, the greatest of the human race?

You are a nineteenth-century sceptic, and you are always telling me that I ignore the cruelty of nature. If you had been an eighteenth-century sceptic you would have told me that I ignore the kindness and benevolence of nature. You are an atheist, and you praise the deists of the eighteenth century. Read them instead of praising them, and you will find that their whole universe stands or falls with the deity. You are a materialist, and you think Bruno a scientific hero. See what he said and you will think him an insane mystic. No, the great Free-thinker, with his genuine ability and honesty, does not in practice destroy Christianity. What he does destroy is the Free-thinker who went before. Free-thought may be suggestive, it may be inspiriting, it may have as much as you please of the merits that come from vivacity and variety. But there is one thing Free-thought can never be by any possibility—Free-thought can never be progressive. It can never be progressive because it will accept nothing from the past; it begins every time again from the beginning; and it goes every time in a different direction. All the rational philosophers have gone along different roads, so it is impossible to say which has gone farthest. Who

Conştiinţa superioară determină concepţia despre lume. Orice conştiinţă preocupată de cauze şi intenţii este o concepţie despre lume în germene. Orice spor în materie de experienţă şi cunoaştere înseamnă un pas înainte în dezvoltarea concepţiei despre lume. Iar o dată cu imaginea pe care insul gânditor şi-o creează despre lume se schimbă şi el însuşi. Omul pentru care soarele se roteşte încă în jurul pământului este altul decât acela pentru care pământul este un satelit al soarelui. Nu degeaba ideea de infinit a lui Giordano Bruno reprezintă unul dintre începuturile cele mai importante ale conştiinţei moderne. Omul pentru care cosmosul se află în empireu este altul decât cel al cărui spirit este luminat de viziunea lui Kepler. Cineva care nu e sigur dacă doi ori doi fac patru este altul decât cineva pentru care nimic nu e mai cert decât adevărurile apriorice ale matematicii. Cu alte cuvinte, nu e indiferent ce concepţie despre lume avem, căci noi nu doar creăm o imagine a lumii, ci suntem noi înşine retroactiv schimbaţi de ea.

Ce qu’il y a de plus heureux dans la richesse, c’est qu’elle permet de soulager la misère d’autrui.

Le courage ne consiste pas à ne point être ému en face d'un danger, mais à surmonter son émotion: c'est pour cela qu'un enfant peut être aussi courageux qu'un homme.

Quand on a été séparé de sa patrie, on comprend mieux encore combien elle vous est chère.

Voulez-vous mériter la confiance de ceux qui ne vous connaissent pas? travaillez. On estime toujours ceux qui travaillent.

Après qu'on a travaillé, le plus utile des délassements est une lecture qui vous instruit. L'âge de s'instruire n'est jamais passé

Si vous parcouriez la France, que de merveilles vous admireriez dans l'industrie des hommes, à côté des beautés de la nature!

«Voulez-vous qu'on pense et qu'on dise du bien de vous, n'en dites point vous-même

La prétendue baguette des fées était moins puissante que ne l'est aujourd'hui la science des hommes.

Let us be honest. Did all the priests of Rome increase the mental wealth of man as much as Bruno? Did all the priests of France do as great a work for the civilization of the world as Voltaire or Diderot? Did all the ministers of Scotland add as much to the sum of human knowledge as David Hume? Have all the clergymen, monks, friars, ministers, priests, bishops, cardinals and popes, from the day of Pentecost to the last election, done as much for human liberty as Thomas Paine? What would the world be if infidels had never been? The infidels have been the brave and thoughtful men; the flower of all the world; the pioneers and heralds of the blessed day of liberty and love; the generous spirits of the unworthy past; the seers and prophets of our race; the great chivalric souls, proud victors on the battlefields of thought, the creditors of all the years to be. Why should it be taken for granted that the men who devoted their lives to the liberation of their fellow-men should have been hissed at in the hour of death by the snakes of conscience, while men who defended slavery—practiced polygamy—-justified the stealing of babes from the breasts of mothers, and lashed the naked back of unpaid labor, are supposed to have passed smilingly from earth to the embraces of the angels? Why should we think that the brave thinkers, the investigators, the honest men, must have left the crumbling shore of time in dread and fear, while the instigators of the massacre of St. Bartholomew; the inventors and users of thumb-screws, of iron boots and racks; the burners and tearers of human flesh; the stealers, the whippers and the enslavers of men; the buyers and beaters of maidens, mothers and babes; the founders of the Inquisition; the makers of chains; the builders of dungeons; the calumniators of the living; the slanderers of the dead, and even the murderers of Jesus Christ, all died in the odor of sanctity, with white, forgiven hands folded upon the breasts of peace, while the destroyers of prejudice, the apostles of humanity, the soldiers of liberty, the breakers of fetters, the creators of light, died surrounded by the fierce fiends of God?

I want a refund. I want a refund on life.

With regard to earning interest from a bank, recall in that time there were no “banks” as there are today. The reference literally means to place the money “on a (moneylenders’) table” (compare Matt. 21:12; Mark 11:15; Luke 19:45; John 2:15). Recall also that charging interest was permissible only when Jews lent to non-Jews (e.g., Deut. 23:19–21) (Fitzmyer, 1985: 1237). At a more fundamental level, earning interest also seems to go against the Creation story, where God desires work to be inherently meaningful and for people to work as God worked. Does the desire to use money to make money reflect an attempt to avoid working by the sweat of our brow (Gen. 3:19)? In this light, perhaps it is no coincidence that the third manager had wrapped his pound inside in a soudarion (literally, “a cloth for perspiration”), which refers to a sweat cloth used for face or neck for protection from the sun (Fitzmyer, 1985: 1236; Marshall, 1978: 706). By using “money to make money” the managers in the parable were likely increasing the amount of literal and metaphorical sweat on the brows of the relatively poor.