In music, in the sea, in a flower, in a leaf, in an act of kindness... I see what people call God in all these things.
Interpretation
The quote expresses the idea that divinity can be found in the beauty and kindness present in the world around us.
Pablo Casals highlights the notion that the presence of God can be perceived in various aspects of life, such as music, nature, and acts of kindness. Instead of seeking divinity in abstract concepts or dogmas, he emphasizes that one can experience and connect with the divine through the beauty and love that surround us in everyday experiences.
In practice
This quote can be used in a reflection on spirituality during a community gathering.
Bach is the supreme genius of music... This man, who knows everything and feels everything, cannot write one note, however unimportant it may appear, which is anything but transcendent. He has reached the heart of every noble thought, and has done it in the most perfect way.
The love of one's country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border?
The child must know that he is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there hasn't been, and until the end of the world there will not be, another child like him.
I am an old man but in many senses a very young man. And this is what I want you to be, young, young all your life.
To the whole world you might be just one person, but to one person you might just be the whole world.
How could anybody think of Bach as 'cold' when these [cello] suites seem to shine with the most glittering kind of poetry," Casals said. "As I got on with the study I discovered a new world of space and beauty... the feelings I experienced were among the purest and most intense in my artistic life!
I titled the book 'Homo Deus' because we really are becoming gods in the most literal sense possible. We are acquiring abilities that have always been thought to be divine abilities - in particular, the ability to create life. And we can do with that whatever we want.
If a man be endowed with a generous mind, this is the best kind of nobility.
We're all inseparably part of each other. We all coexist in each other.
To me all men are equal: there are jackasses everywhere, and I have the same contempt for them all.
Look at you in war...There has never been a just one, never an honorable one, on the part of the instigator of the war.
A man who is eating or lying with his wife or preparing to go to sleep in humility, thankfulness and temperance, is, by Christian standards, in an infinitely higher state than one who is listening to Bach or reading Plato in a state of pride.
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