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.
The Holy Spirit upon my left leads my feet without ceasing into the camp of the righteous and into the tents of the free.
If a man meets with injustice, it is not required that he shall not be roused to meet it; but if he is angry after he has had time to think upon it, that is sinful. The flame is not wrong, but the coals are.
My political curiosity, exclusive of my anxious solicitude for the public welfare, leads me to ask who authorized them (the framers of the Constitution) to speak the language of 'We, the People,' instead of 'We, the States'?
Being is seeing in the human dimension.
A belligerent state permits itself every such misdeed, every such act of violence, as would disgrace the individual.
Here we go mother on the shipless ocean. Pity us, pity the ocean, here we go.
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