spiritual insights quotations quotes mysticism in world religions, faith vs reason debate perennial philosophy
[spiritual insights quotations, faith vs versus reason science debate]
wisdom quotes faith versus reason debate controversy enlightenment wisdom world religions deb platt

Home > Contact Us > Cite Us > Spiritual Insights Quotations Quotes and the Faith vs Reason Debate

  Site Map  |  * Popular Pages *  |  Slide Shows  |  Guest Book  |  Links  |  About Us  |  Download Wisdoms  | 

Spiritual Insights Quotations Quotes
and the Faith vs Reason Debate

world map

The World's Poets and Mystics have had
access to quite amazing realms of perception!!!

Across the ages wisdoms have been divined or discovered by a wide range of mystics, holy men, poets and philosophers who themselves lived out their individual lives in spiritually, culturally and geographically widespread situations.
We consider that our site features an unrivalled collection of impact-full spiritual insights quotations which "somehow encapsulate" such wisdoms. These wisdom quotes, conveying profound truths, come mainly from spiritual and poetic sources but there are some also from certain famous philosophers.

Aldous Huxley &
The Perennial Philosophy

Many commentators, (including Aldous Huxley), have claimed to have discerned a "Perennial Philosophy" of central agreement about "Divine Truths" between the great religions of the world across the ages!!!
More than twenty-five centuries have passed since that which has been called the Perennial Philosophy was first committed to writing; and in the course of those centuries it has found expression, now partial, now complete, now in this form, now in that, again and again...
...the Perennial Philosophy has spoken almost all the languages of Asia and Europe and has made use of the terminology and traditions of every one of the higher religions. But under all this confusion of tongues and myths, of local histories and particularist doctrines, there remains a Highest Common Factor, which is the Perennial Philosophy in what may be called its chemically pure state...


[Taken from an introduction, written in 1944 by Aldous Huxley, to an english translation of the Bhagavad-Gita, or Song of God, which is the principal holy book of the Hindu faith].
Our extensive Spiritual and Poetry insights quotations pages are bursting at the seams with examples of how profound truths are recognised, and applauded, by a Spiritual-Poetical aspect that seems to be innate to Human Nature. To demonstrate this we have developed three brief and impact-full introductory reviews that are intended to demonstrate something of the depth of reliable Wisdoms and Insights available here at Age-of-the-Sage.

We hope that you will be very seriously intrigued by assessing how the "Poetical" wisdoms, the "Inter-Faith" wisdoms and the "Christian" wisdoms that are collected on our site are both individually valid and also have strong similarities despite their diversity of origin:-

Wisdom Quotes from the Great Poets

A Disdain for Materialism
Poor and content is rich, and rich enough.

Shakespeare

A Distrust of Intellect
The intellectual power, through words and things,
Went sounding on, a dim and perilous way!

Wordsworth

A Yearning for Divine Edification
God guard me from those thoughts men think
In the mind alone;
He that sings a lasting song
Thinks in a marrow-bone;

Yeats

Charity
  That best portion of a good man's life,
His little, nameless, unremembered acts
Of kindness and of love.

Wordsworth

Purity of Heart
 A peace above all earthly dignities,
A still and quiet conscience.

Shakespeare

Humility
The best of men
That e'er wore earth about him, was a sufferer,
A soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit,
The first true gentleman that ever breathed.

Thomas Dekker

Meekness
 Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice,
And could of men distinguish her election,
Sh'hath sealed thee for herself, for thou hast been
As one in suff'ring all that suffers nothing,
A man that Fortune's buffets and rewards
Hast ta'en with equal thanks; and blest are those
Whose blood and judgement are so well co-medled,
That they are not a pipe for Fortune's finger
To sound what stop she please: give me that man
That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him
In my heart's core, ay in my heart of heart,
As I do thee.

Shakespeare



Wisdom Quotes from Inter-Faith Sources

These spiritual insights quotations demonstrate the recognition of individual important Spiritual Truths by one of the world religions in the case of each "Truth":-
A Disdain for Materialism
Chuang Tzu put on cotton clothes with patches in them, and arranging his girdle and tying on his shoes, (i.e. to keep them from falling off), went to see the prince of Wei.
"How miserable you look, Sir!" Cried the prince. "It is poverty, not misery", replied Chuang Tzu. "A man who has TAO cannot be miserable. Ragged clothes and old boots make poverty, not misery".

Chuang Tzu - (Taoism)

A Distrust of Intellect
Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment; Cleverness is mere opinion, bewilderment intuition.

Rumi - (Islam)

A Yearning for Divine Edification
This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind. Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

St. Paul - (Christianity)

Charity
 He that does everything for Me, whose supreme object I am, who worships Me, being free from attachment and without hatred to any creature, this man, Arjuna!, comes to Me.

Bhagavad Gita - (Hinduism)

Purity of Heart
 The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.

Solomon - (Judaism)

Humility
Would you become a pilgrim on the road of love? The first condition is that you make yourself humble as dust and ashes.

Ansari of Herat - (Islam)

Meekness
 Let a man overcome anger by love, let him overcome evil by good; let him overcome the greedy by liberality, the liar by truth! Speak the truth, do not yield to anger; give, if thou art asked for little; by these three steps thou wilt go near the gods.

Dhammapada - (Buddhism)



Wisdom Quotes from Christian Sources

A selection of wisdom quotes that demonstrate the profound depth of the insights that are recognised by Christian authorities are set out below. They are sourced from the Bible and also from the works of Thomas a Kempis whose "Of the Imitation of Christ" ranks as the second most widely read Christian text after the Bible itself.

A Disdain for Materialism
Some have Me in their mouths, but little in their hearts.
 There are others who, being enlightened in their understanding and purified in their affection, always breathe after things eternal, are unwilling to hear of earthly things, and grieve to be subject to the necessities of nature; and such as these perceive what the Spirit of Truth speaketh in them.
 For it teacheth them to despise the things of the earth and to love heavenly things; to disregard the world, and all the day and night to aspire after heaven.

Thomas a Kempis

A Distrust of Intellect
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

St. Paul

A Yearning for Divine Edification
It is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love him. But God has revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.
  ...the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

St. Paul

Charity
  Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

St. John

Purity of Heart
 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;

St. Paul

Humility
Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whomsoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

Jesus

Meekness
 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

St. James

If you will be so open-minded as to give our presentation of the QUITE AWESOME Wisdoms that have been won by the Mystics and Poets a fair hearing we believe that we can firmly establish your own opinion of their collective insights as one of appreciation and respect.

The Wisdoms and Insights that are made available across many of our pages appear as a result of searching investigations, conducted by the main sponsor of Age-of-the-Sage, into the areas of agreement about Important Spiritual Truths that was initially concentrated on the major World Religions but was later extended to include the Key Insights of the Poets.

The resulting discovery of an extensive range of very close agreement about relevant Spiritual Truths across the major World Faiths was originally inspired by reading a book entitled "The Perennial Philosophy" by Aldous Huxley, (first published in 1945), where a limited range of such agreement was considered.

..."the nature of this one Reality is such that it cannot be directly or immediately apprehended except by those who have chosen to fulfill certain conditions, making themselves loving, pure in heart, and poor in spirit."...

[The Perennial Philosophy by Aldous Huxley, page 7].
(Aldous Huxley is perhaps better known for his futuristic novel "Brave New World". The Huxley family have a noteable record of achievement acrosss several generations. Aldous' mother was a grand-daughter of Thomas Arnold, a famous educational reformer, whilst his paternal grandfather was a famous biological scientist and evolutionist. One of Aldous' brothers, Julian Huxley, became the first Director-General of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation - (UNESCO).

Charles Darwin anniversary Google logo

The main Google search page featured a Charles Darwin related logo on 12 February, 2009, this being the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth

Given that agreement in Spiritual Insights recognised by Mysticism in World Religions was being exhaustively researched there is a certain irony in the fact that Aldous Huxley's grandfather, Thomas Henry Huxley, was a contemporary of Charles Darwin who accepted Darwin's theories becoming a far more strident proponent than Darwin himself of the Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection and is known to posterity as having been "Darwin's Bulldog".

On November 23, 1859, just a few days after the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species, Huxley wrote to Darwin:-
"My dear Darwin–I finished your book yesterday...

...Since I read Von Bär's essays, nine years ago, no work on Natural History Science I have met with has made so great an impression upon me, and I do most heartily thank you for the great store of new views you have given me. Nothing, I think, can be better than the tone of the book–it impresses those who know about the subject. As for your doctrines I am prepared to go to the Stake if requisite...

...I trust you will not allow yourself to be in any way disgusted or annoyed by the considerable abuse and misrepresentation which, unless I greatly mistake is in store for you. Depend upon it, you have earned the lasting gratitude of all thoughtful men. And as to the curs which will bark and yelp, you must recollect that some of your friends, at any rate, are endowed with an amount of combativeness which (though you have often and justly rebuked it) may stand you in good stead.

I am sharpening up my claws and beak in readiness...
"
The Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature by Thomas Henry Huxley, published in 1863, was the first book explicitly devoted to the topic of human evolution, and discussed much of the anatomical and other evidence for the evolution of man and apes from a common ancestor.

Something of the nature and direction of Huxley's work can prehaps be gauged from the fact that it featured the following frontispiece:-

Thomas Henry Huxley human evolution theory frontispiece Ape and Human skeletons

and that its three chapters were entitled:-

On the Natural History of the Man-Like Apes
On the Relations of Man to the Lower Animals
On Some Fossil Remains of Man

Based on anatomical and other evidence for evolution the book, which achieved a wide readership, put the case that evolutionary theory applied as fully to human beings as to all other life.

Darwin's Origin of Species first appeared late in 1859, it seemed to suggest that Evolution of "life" had followed gradually from an initial creation of "life", and made almost no mention of mankind.
It was in 1871 that Darwin's first explicit work on Humankind and Evolution was published. In this work, Descent of Man, Darwin attempted to persuade the reader of mankind's evolutionary heritage.

 

We feel justified in maintaining that our collection of Spiritual Insights Quotations - showing as it does extensive agreement in relation to core spiritual truths between the major world religions - has a particular claim to public attention in relation to the Faith versus Reason Debate!
Even Charles Darwin saw agreement between religions as adding credibility to Faith!
Late in his life Darwin was encouraged to write up a biographical record about the course of his life and the development of his ideas. Darwin agreed to this suggestion and the opening paragraph of the resulting Autobiography reveals something of Darwin's frame of mind at the time of writing:-

  A German editor having written to me to ask for an account of the development of my mind and character with some sketch of my autobiography, I have thought that the attempt would amuse me, and might possibly interest my children or their children. I know that it would have interested me greatly to have read even so short and dull a sketch of the mind of my grandfather written by himself, and what he thought and did and how he worked. I have attempted to write the following account of myself, as if I were a dead man in another world looking back at my own life. Nor I have I found that difficult, for life is nearly over with me. I have taken no pains about my style of writing.

The Faith versus Reason Debate
Darwin on God and Religious Beliefs

Darwin's Autobiography as first published in 1887, five years after Darwin's death, had been edited by one of his sons in efforts to protect family respectability to exclude certain passages principally relating to God.
The original version actually contains a section explicity devoted to a consideration of Religious Beliefs which contains the following sentences:-

 At present the most usual argument for the existence of an intelligent God is drawn from deep inward conviction and feelings which are experienced by most persons. But it cannot be doubted that Hindoos, Mahomadans and others might argue in the same manner and with equal force in favour of the existence of one God, or of many Gods, or as with the Buddhists of no God....

Formerly I was led by feelings such as those just referred to, (although I do not think that the religious sentiment was ever strongly developed in me), to the firm conviction of the existence of God, and of the immortality of the soul...
 ...This argument would be a valid one, if all men of all races had the same inward conviction of the existence of one God; but we know this is very far from being the case. Therefore I cannot see that such inward convictions and feelings are of any weight as evidence of what really exists....
Thus the founding figure of Darwinism and Modern Evolutionary Theory conceded that
agreement between Faiths has a decided relevance in terms of making Faith more credible!
By all accounts Charles Darwin was inclined to shy away from controversy but nevertheless pursued his idea of evolution privately with quiet determination. In this regard he mixed with farmers and pigeon-fanciers whilst maintaining a wide correspondence with those involved in the science of Natural History and in the collection of biological specimens in the far-flung corners of the Earth.
This seems to mark him out as being both open-minded and approachable and, if Charles Darwin were alive today, we at Age-of-the-Sage would be urgently seeking to interest him in our discovery of an extensive range of close agreement between the Core Spiritual Teachings of ALL the major World Religions.

The current availability of sympathetic translations of World Faith texts allows deeper studies into Comparative Religion to be undertaken than was perhaps possible in Darwin's day.
The fact that there is such close agreement in Innermost Spiritual Teachings between the Major World Religions must surely have a bearing on the Faith vs Reason Debate lending credence to the saying "God is One: Religions many" depite the general erosion in religious beliefs and the lessening of acceptance of the Existence of any God that has occured, particularly in the "West", since the appearance of Darwin's "The Origin of Species".

Spirituality is an important aspect of Human Nature

Spirituality is an aspect of Human Nature

Please click on these links to review
quotations about "Central" Spiritual Insights
drawn from sources as indicated :-
 

Christian Spirituality
& Mysticism Quotations
Islamic Spirituality
& Mysticism Quotations
Jewish Spirituality
& Mysticism Quotations
Hindu Spirituality
& Mysticism Quotations
Buddhist Spirituality
& Mysticism Quotations
Taoist Spirituality
& Mysticism Quotations

  There may well be other faiths (not least Sikhism) that should properly be included in any definitive consideration of Mysticism in World Religions !!!
 
Please click on the following link to review
quotations about "Central" Poetry Insights :-
 

"Central" Poetry Insights


Please click on the following link to review
quotations about Spirituality and the Wider World
drawn from Plato, several Major World Religions, and Shakespeare :-
 

Spirituality and the Wider World

 

Spiritual Insights Enlightenment Quotations
The Wisdom of Poets

 No man was ever yet a great poet, without being at the same time a profound philosopher. For poetry is the blossom and the fragrancy of all human knowledge, human thoughts, human passions, emotions, language.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

 

 


  But words are things, and a small drop of ink,
Falling, like dew, upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.

Lord Byron


 



  Poetry should be great and unobtrusive,
a thing which enters into one's soul,
and does not startle it or amaze it with itself,
but with its subject.

John Keats


  []



  Coleridge, Byron, and Keats, are renowned and respected for their ability to poetically convey truth and meaning.
Any exhaustive search for "the blossom and the fragrancy of all human knowledge, human thoughts, human passions, emotions, language" should also acknowledge the spiritual and poetical truths related by the mystics.
 

Mysticism in World Religions

  The following wisdom quotes convey something of the way that religious mysticism maintains that Enlightenment is not "intellectual."
 
 

Zen Buddhism

  A University Professor went to see Nan-in, a Zen Master, to find out more about Zen.
  As their meeting continued Nan-in was pouring Tea and continued to pour even though the cup was overflowing.
  The Professor cried. "Enough! No more will go in!"
  Nan-in replied "Like this cup you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?"

 

Christianity


 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind. Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

St. Paul
Ephesians 4:17-18


and again:-

 To the humble He revealeth His secrets, and sweetly draweth and inviteth him to Himself.
 The humble man, having received reproach, maintaineth himself well enough in peace, because he is fixed in God and not in the world.
 Never think that thou hast made any progress till thou look upon thyself as inferior to all.

Thomas a Kempis
Of the Imitation of Christ Bk. 3, Ch. 4, v. 4

 

Judaism

 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.

Book of Proverbs 3:5-8

 

The insights of - The Sage - those who are supremely adept in Mysticism or Poetry - are REALLY important.

  Find out more by reading some introductory famous and familiar quotations...

Introductory quotations

[]

Or why not continue with our pages that consider the possibility that innate human nature has a pervasive determining influence over many aspects of our own lives both as individuals and as members of society:-

"...man is a bundle of relations, a knot of roots,
whose flower and fruitage is the world..."

Ralph Waldo Emerson  


More on this ...

[Mysticism in world religions]

The Wisdoms and Insights available on our
site include some about Human Existence itself:-


Explore Human Nature thru our radical
Human Nature - Tripartite Soul page

Introductory quotations
.
Central
spiritual insights
.
Other
spiritual wisdom
.
Central poetry insights
.
Other poetry wisdom
.
Spirituality &
the wider world
.
Our major
History &
Historians
Section

.
Sources of
mysticism quotes
.


Particularly
Popular
Pages

.

  Hot Hot Hot  

.

Psychology &
Philosophy






Key Charles Darwin quotes on God, Religion and Religious Belief
Mysticism in World Religions Wisdom Quotes


 
 
 

 
 

  Start of
Spiritual Insights Quotations
and the Faith vs versus Reason Debate