Do not imagine that what we have said of the insufficiency of our understanding and of its limited extent is an assertion founded only on the Bible: for philosophers likewise assert the same, and perfectly understand it,- without having regard to any religion or opinion.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the limitations of human understanding, asserting that both religious and philosophical perspectives acknowledge this insufficiency.
Maimonides highlights the shared recognition among both religious texts and philosophical thought regarding the limits of human understanding. He argues that this acknowledgment is not exclusive to any one belief system but is a universal truth recognized across different fields of thought. This reflects a deeper understanding of knowledge, encouraging humility in our pursuit of wisdom and insight.
In practice
In a debate about the nature of knowledge, one might use this quote to illustrate the idea that all thinkers agree on the limits of understanding.
If men possessed wisdom, which stands in the same relation to the form of man as the sight to the eye, they would not cause any injury to themselves or to others; for the knowledge of truth removes hatred and quarrels, and prevents mutual injuries.
There are eight rungs in charity. The highest is when you help a man to help himself.
God who preceded all existence is a refuge.
When man possesses a good, sound body that does not overpower him nor disturb the equilibrium in him, he possesses a divine gift. In short, a good constitution facilitates the rule of the soul over the body, but it is not impossible to conquer a bad constitution by training.
If the whole earth is infinitely small in comparison with the sphere of the stars, what is man compared with all these created beings!
One should see the world, and see himself as a scale with an equal balance of good and evil. When he does one good deed the scale is tipped to the good - he and the world is saved. When he does one evil deed the scale is tipped to the bad - he and the world is destroyed.
When you make your peace with authority, you become authority.
The soul yearns to fly home on the wings of love to the world of ideas. It longs to be freed from the chains of the body.
Everything that can be said, can be said clearly.
I can well conceive a man without hands, feet, head. But I cannot conceive man without thought; he would be a stone or a brute.
On television I feel like a man playing piano in a brothel; every now and again he solaces himself by playing 'Abide with Me' in the hope of edifying both the clients and the inmates
It is, I think, an error to believe that there is any need of religion to make life seem worth living.
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