Never increase, beyond what is necessary, the number of entities required to explain anything.
William Of OckhamRead
God's existence cannot be deduced by reason alone.
Interpretation
The existence of God cannot be proven merely through logical reasoning.
William of Ockham suggests that rational thought and logical deduction are insufficient to establish the existence of God. This implies a limit to human understanding and reasoning in spiritual matters, indicating that faith or personal experience might play a significant role in such beliefs.
In practice
During a philosophical debate on the nature of belief and existence.
Never increase, beyond what is necessary, the number of entities required to explain anything.
Of two equivalent theories or explanations, all other things being equal, the simpler one is to be preferred.
It is vain to do with more what can be done with less.
Each one of us is responsible for the whole of humankind. We need to think of each other really as brothers and sisters and to be concerned for each otherβs welfare. Rather than working solely to acquire wealth, we need to do something meaningful, something directed seriously towards the welfare of humanity as a whole.
Some people are born good-looking. Some have the gift of gab. And some are lucky enough to be born smarter than the rest of us. Whether we like it or not, Mother Nature does not dole these characteristics out evenly.
A lost battle is a battle one thinks one has lost.
Every phenomenon of nature was a word, - the sign, symbol and pledge of a new, mysterious, inexpressible but all the more intimate union, participation and community of divine energies and ideas.
Reality is contradictory. And it's paradoxical. If there's any one word -- if you had to pick one word to describe the nature of the universe -- I think that word would be paradox. That's true at the subatomic level, right through sociological, psychological, philosophical levels on up to cosmic levels.
Let your mind wander in simplicity, blend your spirit with the vastness, follow along with things the way they are, and make no room for personal views-then the world will be governed.
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