Keep on the lookout for novel ideas that others have used successfully. Your idea has to be original only in its adaptation to the problem you're working on.
Thomas A. EdisonRead
Nature is what we know. We do not know the gods of religions. And nature is not kind, or merciful, or loving. If God made me - the fabled God of the three qualities of which I spoke: mercy, kindness, love - He also made the fish I catch and eat. And where do His mercy, kindness, and love for that fish come in? No; nature made us - nature did it all - not the gods of the religions.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes that nature is the fundamental reality we understand, contrasting it with the qualities ascribed to deities in various religions.
Edison argues that the essence of existence and the laws of nature govern our lives, rather than any divine benevolence attributed to religious gods. He illustrates the often harsh realities of nature and questions the concepts of mercy, kindness, and love when applied to both humans and the natural world, suggesting that nature itself, rather than a religious deity, is responsible for existence and life.
Themes
NatureExistenceRealityPhilosophyReligion
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophy class discussing the nature of existence.
More from Thomas A. Edison
All quotes →If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.
Thomas A. EdisonRead
I am a vegetarian as well as a passionate anti-alcoholic, because I can thus make better use of my brain.
Thomas A. EdisonRead
Genius is not inspired. Inspiration is perspiration.
Thomas A. EdisonRead
I didn't fail 1000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1000 steps.
Thomas A. EdisonRead
There is no substitute for hard work.
Thomas A. EdisonRead
Similar quotes
Because I could not stop for death, He kindly stopped for me; The carriage held but just ourselves and immortality.
Emily DickinsonRead
One is always more vexed at losing a game of any sort by a single hole or ace, than if one has never had a chance of winning it.
William HazlittRead
Reality, by itself, becomes a story by Philip K. Dick.
Philip K. DickRead
Hang ideas! They are tramps, vagabonds, knocking at the back-door of your mind, each taking a little of your substance, each carrying away some crumb of that belief in a few simple notions you must cling to if you want to live decently and would like to die easy!
Joseph ConradRead
He who understands baboon would do more towards metaphysics than Locke.
Charles DarwinRead
He who does not realize to what extent shifting fortune and necessity hold in subjection every human spirit, cannot regard as fellow-creatures nor love as he loves himself those whom chance separated from him by an abyss. The variety of constraints pressing upon man give rise to the illusion of several distinct species that cannot communicate. Only he who has measured the dominion of force, and knows how not to respect it, is capable of love and justice.
Simone WeilRead