QuoteProject
To know God better is only to realize how impossible it is that we should ever know him at all. I know not which is more childish to deny him, or define him.
Samuel Butler
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Understanding God deepens our awareness of the limits of human comprehension.

Samuel Butler's quote suggests that as we seek to understand God, we come to recognize the immense mystery surrounding this divine figure, making it apparent that our grasp is ultimately limited. He posits that the attempts to either deny or strictly define God may be naively simplistic, as such efforts fail to acknowledge the complexity and vastness of the concept of divinity.

Themes

GodKnowledgeMysteryUnderstandingFaith

In practice

Example use cases

This quote could be used in a philosophical discussion about the nature of divinity.

More from Samuel Butler

Belief like any other moving body follows the path of least resistance.
Samuel ButlerRead
Academic and aristocratic people live in such an uncommon atmosphere that common sense can rarely reach them.
Samuel ButlerRead
An apology for the devil: it must be remembered that we have heard one side of the case. God has written all the books.
Samuel ButlerRead
Young people have a marvelous faculty of either dying or adapting themselves to circumstances.
Samuel ButlerRead
People care more about being thought to have taste than about being thought either good, clever or amiable.
Samuel ButlerRead
A friend who cannot at a pinch remember a thing or two that never happened is as bad as one who does not know how to forget.
Samuel ButlerRead

Similar quotes

The real person you are is revealed in the moments when you're certain no other person is watching. When no one is watching, you are driven by what you expect of yourself.
Ralph MarstonRead
Fine words are traded. Noble deeds gain respect. But people who are not good, why abandon them?
LaoziRead
Our waking life's desire to shape the world to our convenience invites all manner of paradox and difficulty.
Cormac MccarthyRead
We should not be so taken up in the search for truth, as to neglect the needful duties of active life; for it is only action that gives a true value and commendation to virtue.
Marcus Tullius CiceroRead
You need an infinite stretch of time ahead of you to start to think, infinite energy to make the smallest decision. The world is getting denser. The immense number of useless projects is bewildering. Too many things have to be put in to balance up an uncertain scale. You can't disappear anymore. You die in a state of total indecision.
Jean BaudrillardRead
A man is never so truly and intensely himself as when he is most possessed by God. It is impossible to say where, in the spiritual life, the human will leaves off and divine grace begins.
William Ralph IngeRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.