World Spiritual Heritage

The quotes of Nicholas of Cusa

14 quote(s) | Page 1 / 1

settings

contact_support

arrow_upward

home

I f full knowledge about the very base of our existence could be described as a circle, the best we can do is to arrive at a polygon.

church

quote 4074 | Nicholas of Cusa
Care of the Soul, Thomas Moore

W isdom is not to be found in the art of oratory, or in great books, but in a withdrawal from these sensible things and in a turning to the most simple and infinite forms. You will learn how to receive it into a temple purged from all vice, and by fervent love to cling to it until you may taste it and see how sweet That is which is all sweetness. Once this has been tasted, all things which you now consider as important will appear as vile, and you will be so humbled that no arrogance or other vice will remain in you. Once having tasted this wisdom, you will inseparably adhere to it with a chaste and pure heart. You will choose rather to forsake this world and all else that is not of this wisdom, and living with unspeakable happiness you will die.

church

quote 3840 | Nicholas of Cusa
De sapientia; Dolan, 1962; pp. 115-116

J ust as any knowledge of the taste of something we have never actually tasted is quite empty until we do taste it, so the taste of this wisdom cannot be acquired by hearsay but by one's actually touching it with his internal sense, and then he will bear witness not of what he has heard but what he has experientially tasted in himself. To know of the many descriptions of love which the saints have left us without knowing the taste of love is nothing other than a certain emptiness. Thus it is that it is not enough for him who seeks after eternal wisdom to merely read about these things, but it is absolutely necessary that once he discovers where it is by his understanding he make it his very own.

church

quote 3839 | Nicholas of Cusa
De sapientia; Dolan, 1962; pp. 111-112

F or a persistent and continued ascent to [the Principle and Source of] life is the constituent element of increased happiness.

church

quote 3838 | Nicholas of Cusa
De sapientia; Dolan, 1962; p. 107

I am a -living shadow and Thou the Truth... Therefore, my God, Thou art alike shadow and Truth; Thou art alike the image and the Exemplar of myself and all men.

church

quote 3837 | Nicholas of Cusa
De visio Dei, XV; Salter, 1960, p. 73

H ence, in Thee, who art Love, the lover -is not one thing and the loved another, and the bond between them a third, but they are one and the same-Thou, Thyself, my God. Since, then, in Thee the loved is one with the lover, and being loved [is one] with loving, this bond of coincidence is an essential bond. For there is nothing in Thee that is not Thy very Essence. (1)

I see, Lord, through Thine infinite mercy, that Thou art Infinity encompassing all things. Nothing exists outside Thee, and all things -in Thee are not other than Thee. (2)

church

quote 3836 | Nicholas of Cusa
(1) De visio Dei, XVII; Salter, 1960, p. 81-82 : (2) De visio Dei, XIV; Salter, 1960, p. 66

T hus the Essence is triune, and yet there are not three essences therein, since It is most simple. The plurality of these three is both plurality and unity, and their unity is both unity and plurality.

church

quote 3835 | Nicholas of Cusa
De visio Dei, XVII; Salter, 1960, p. 82

H e is God the Father whom we might also call "One" or "Unity," because He necessitates being out of what did not exist (through His omnipotence) ... This [omnipotent Power of His] is the Word, the Wisdom, the Son of the Father; and we may regard Him as co-equal to the One or Unity.

church

quote 3834 | Nicholas of Cusa
De sapientia; Dolan, 1962; p. 113

O God, ... [Thou dost] seem subject to mutability, since Thou dost never desert Thy creatures, which are subject to mutability; ... but, because Thou art the absolute Good, Thou art not changeable, and dost not follow what is mutable. 0 the unplumbed depths of Thee, my God, who art not separate from Thy creatures, and art nonetheless beyond them!

church

quote 3833 | Nicholas of Cusa
De visio Dei, XV; Salter, 1960, p. 74

I behold Thee, 0 Lord my God, in a kind of mental trance, ... (1)
- Thus, while I am borne to loftiest heights, I behold Thee as Infinity... (2)
- And when I behold Thee as absolute Infinity, to whom is befitting neither the name of creating Creator nor of creatable Creator-then indeed I begin to behold Thee unveiled, and to enter into the garden of delights! (3)
... [In that vision] nothing is seen other than Thyself, [for Thou] art Thyself the object of Thyself (for Thou seest, and art That which is seen, and art the sight as well) . (4)

church

quote 3832 | Nicholas of Cusa
(1) De visio Dei, XVI; Salter, 1960, p. 78 ; (2) De visio Dei, XIII; Salter, 1960, p. 59 ; (3) De visio Dei, XII; Salter, 1960, p. 57 ; (4) De visio Dei, XII; Salter, 1960, p. 56

O Lord, my God, ... I see Thee to be 'infinity Itself, wherefore nothing is alien to Thee, nothing differing from Thee, nothing opposed to Thee. For the Infinite allows no otherness from Itself, since, being Infinity, -nothing exists outside It: absolute Infinity includes and contains all things.

church

quote 3831 | Nicholas of Cusa
De visio Dei, XIII; Salter, 1960, p. 62

T hose who think that wisdom is nothing other than that which is comprehensible by the understanding, that happiness is nothing else than what they can attain, are quite far from the true eternal and infinite wisdom.

The highest wisdom consists in this, to know ...how That which is unattainable [by the intellect] may be reached or attained in a manner beyond [intellectual] attainment.

church

quote 3830 | Nicholas of Cusa
De sapientia; Dolan, 1962; pp. 108 and 105

T hat wisdom (which all men by their very nature desire to know and consequently seek after with such great affection of mind) is known in no other way than that it is higher than all knowledge and utterly unknowable and unspeakable in all language. It is unintelligible to all understanding, immeasurable by all measure, improportionable by every proportion, incomparable by all comparison, infigurable by all figuration, unformable by all. formation, ... imimaginable by all imagination, ... inapprehensible in all apprehension and unaffirmable in all affirmation, undeniable in all negation, indoubtable in ail doubt, inopinionable in all opinion; and because in all speech it is inexpressible, there can be no limit to the means of expressing it, being incognitable in all cognition…

church

quote 3829 | Nicholas of Cusa
De sapientia; Dolan, 1962; pp. 105-106

R eason strives for knowledge and yet this natural striving is not adequate to the knowledge of the Essence of God, but only to the knowledge that God ... is beyond all conception and knowledge.

church

quote 3828 | Nicholas of Cusa
De venatione sapientiae, Ch. xii; Beek, 1969; p. 64

Page: 1

	settings		Change website design
	menu		Menu
	arrow_upward		Top of the page
	share		Social Network
			Share by SMS
			Share by What's App
			Download as a picture to share on Instagram
			Post on Facebook
			Post on Twitter
			Add to collection (member only)
			Vote (member only)
	close		Close