For life is tendency, and the essence of a tendency is to develop in the form of a sheaf, creating, by its very growth, divergent directions among which its impetus is divided.
Henri BergsonRead
Religion is to mysticism what popularization is to science
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that religion simplifies mysticism in the same way that popularization makes science more accessible to the general public.
Henri Bergson's quote highlights the relationship between complex concepts and their more accessible forms. Just as popularization serves to make scientific ideas understandable for wider audiences, religion embodies and simplifies the deeper mysteries of mysticism for those seeking spiritual understanding. Essentially, both processes aim to bridge the gap between intricate ideas and public comprehension, translating the profound into the more digestible.
Themes
ReligionMysticismSciencePopularizationUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
During a seminar on spirituality, one might use this quote to illustrate how deeper concepts can be made relatable.
More from Henri Bergson
All quotes βTo exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.
Henri BergsonRead
Laughter is the corrective force which prevents us from becoming cranks.
Henri BergsonRead
I believe that the time given to refutation in philosophy is usually time lost. Of the many attacks directed by many thinkers against each other, what now remains? Nothing, or assuredly very little. That which counts and endures is the modicum of positive truth which each contributes. The true statement is, of itself, able to displace the erroneous idea, and becomes, without our having taken the trouble of refuting anyone, the best of refutations.
Henri BergsonRead
And I also see how this body influences external images: it gives back movement to them.
Henri BergsonRead
There are manifold tones of mental life, or, in other words, our psychic life may be lived at different heights, now nearer to action, now further removed from it, according to the degree of our attention to life.
Henri BergsonRead
Similar quotes
Man with all his noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar system- with all these exalted powers- Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.
Charles DarwinRead
Scapegoating is as American as apple pie. And because there's almost always a racial or ethnic dynamic to it in our country, scapegoating is the evil cousin of white supremacy.
Jonathan CapehartRead
There are no unique postures and times and limitations that restrict our access to God. My relationship with God is intimate and personal. The Christian does not go to the temple to worship. The Christian takes the temple with him or her. Jesus lifts us beyond the building and pays the human body the highest compliment by making it His dwelling place, the place where He meets with us. Even today He would overturn the tables of those who make it a marketplace for their own lust, greed and wealth.
Ravi ZachariasRead
Definitions.... are never really needed, and rarely of any use
Karl PopperRead
It is our own evil thoughts which madden us.
Marcus Tullius CiceroRead
The word 'Islam' means 'peace.' The word 'Muslim' means 'one who surrenders to God.' But the press makes us seem like haters.
Muhammad AliRead