Among irrational animals the love of the offspring and of the parents for each other is extraordinary because God, who created them, compensated for the deficiency of reason by the superiority of their senses.
Interpretation
Saint Basil highlights the extraordinary bond of love among animals, suggesting that they have a deep connection that compensates for their lack of reason.
In this quote, Saint Basil reflects on the profound love that exists among animals, particularly between parents and their offspring. He suggests that although these creatures may lack human-like reasoning abilities, they possess heightened senses that cultivate an extraordinary emotional connection. This underscores the idea that love is a fundamental force in nature, bridging gaps created by cognitive limitations.
In practice
This quote could be shared during a talk about animal rights to emphasize the emotional bonds among animal families.
Now, if you notice how the swan, putting its neck down into the deep water, brings up food for itself from below, then you will discover the wisdom of the Creator, in that He gave it a neck longer than its feet for this reason, that it might, as if lowering a sort of fishing line, procure the food hidden in the deep water.
When you have become God's in the measure he desires, then he himself will bestow you upon others; unless, to your greater glory, he chooses to keep you all to himself.
What is there astonishing in the death of a mortal? But we are grieved at his dying before his time. Are we sure that this was not his time? We do not know how to pick and choose what is good for our souls, or how to fix the limits of the life of man.
I heard many discourses which were good for the soul, but I could not discover in the case of any one of the teachers that his life was worthy of his words.
To lovers of the truth, nothing can be put before God and hope in Him.
If every man took only what was sufficient for his needs, leaving the rest to those in want, there would be no rich and no poor.
The imaginations which people have of one another are the solid facts of society.
If honesty were suddenly introduced into American life, the whole system would collapse.
Man is a centaur, a tangle of flesh and mind, divine inspiration and dust.
There is a thing inherent and natural which existed before heaven and earth. Motionless and fathomless, It stands alone and never changes; It pervades everywhere and never becomes exhausted. It may be regarded as the Mother of the Universe. I do not know its name. If I am forced to give It a name, I call it Tao, and I name it as supreme.
There is no problem of human nature which is insoluble.
The world doesn't owe you anything. It was here first.
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