Maimonides Quotes

Whatever Form It Has, It [matter] Will Be Disposed To Receive Another Form; It Never Leaves Off Moving And Casting Off The Form Which It Has In Order To Receive Another. ...it Is Therefore Clear That All Corruption, Destruction, Or Defect Comes From Matter.

Now, We Occupy A Lowly Position, Both In Space And Rank In Comparison With The Heavenly Sphere, And The Almighty Is Most High Not In Space, But With Respect To Absolute Existence, Greatness And Power.

The Being Which Has Absolute Existence, Which Has Never Been And Will Never Be Without Existence, Is Not In Need Of An Agent.

In Accordance With The Divine Wisdom, Genesis Can Only Take Place Through Destruction, And Without Destruction Of The Individual Members Of The Species The Species Themselves Would Not Exist Permanently. Thus The True Kindness, And Beneficence, And Goodness Of God Is Clear.

The Error Of The Ignorant Goes So Far As To Say That God's Power Is Insufficient, Because He Has Given To This Universe The Properties Which They Imagine Cause These Great Evils, And Which Do Not Help All Evil-disposed Persons To Obtain The Evil Which They Seek, And To Bring Their Evil Souls To The Aim Of Their Desires, Though These, As We Have Shown, Are Really Without Limit.

All This Is Applicable To The Intellectual Faculties Of Man. There Is A Considerable Difference Between One Person And Another As Regards These Faculties, As Is Well Known To Philosophers.

The Prophets Even Express Their Surprise That God Should Take Notice Of Man, Who Is Too Little And Too Unimportant To Be Worthy Of The Attention Of The Creator; How, Then, Should Other Living Creatures Be Considered As Proper Objects For Divine Providence!

It Is Thus Necessary To Examine All Things According To Their Essence, To Infer From Every Species Such True And Well Established Propositions As May Assist Us In The Solution Of Metaphysical Problems.

Eliphas Never Abandoned His Belief That The Fate Of Man Is The Result Of Justice, That We Do Not Know All Our Shortcomings For Which We Are Punished, Nor The Way How We Incur The Punishment Through Them.

To The Totality Of Purposes Of The Perfect Law There Belong The Abandonment, Depreciation, And Restraint Of Desires In So Far As Possible.

The First Kind Of Evil Is That Which Is Caused To Man By The Circumstance That He Is Subject To Genesis And Destruction, Or That He Possesses A Body.

To Sum Up: I Am The Man Who When The Concern Pressed Him And His Way Was Straitened And He Could Find No Other Device By Which To Teach A Demonstrable Truth Other Than By Giving Satisfaction To A Single Virtuous Man While Displeasing Ten Thousand Ignoramuses - I Am He Who Prefers To Address That Single Man By Himself, And I Do Not Heed The Blame Of Those Many Creatures.