A most unfailing experience... of the excitement of sublunary (that is, human) natures by the conjunctions and aspects of the planets has instructed and compelled my unwilling belief.
Johannes KeplerRead
...Those laws are within the grasp of the human mind. God wanted us to recognize them by creating us after his own image so that we could share in his own thoughts... and if piety allow us to say so, our understanding is in this respect of the same kind as the divine, at least as far as we are able to grasp something of it in our mortal life.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses the belief that human understanding is aligned with divine knowledge, encouraging us to seek knowledge and truth.
Johannes Kepler's quote highlights the connection between human intellect and divine wisdom, suggesting that humans were created with the capacity to understand the laws of nature as a reflection of God's own thoughts. It implies that through knowledge and understanding, individuals can aspire to grasp the divine principles that govern the universe, reminding us of our potential to reach for higher truths in our mortal existence.
Themes
UnderstandingDivineWisdomKnowledgeHumanLaw
In practice
Example use cases
In a sermon discussing the nature of humanity and divinity.
More from Johannes Kepler
All quotes βWe find, therefore, under this orderly arrangement, a wonderful symmetry in the universe, and a definite relation of harmony in the motion and magnitude of the orbs, of a kind that is not possible to obtain in any other way.
Johannes KeplerRead
I am stealing the golden vessels of the Egyptians to build a tabernacle to my God from them, far far away from the boundaries of Egypt. If you forgive me, I shall rejoice; if you are enraged with me, I shall bear it. See, I cast the die, and I write the book. Whether it is to be read by the people of the present or of the future makes no difference: let it await its reader for a hundred years, if God himself has stood ready for six thousand years for one to study him.
Johannes KeplerRead
Eyesight should learn from reason.
Johannes KeplerRead
I measured the skies, now the shadows I measure, Sky-bound was the mind, earth-bound the body rests. [Kepler's epitaph]
Johannes KeplerRead
It may be well to wait a century for a reader, as God has waited six thousand years for an observer.
Johannes KeplerRead
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