Suns are extinguished or become corrupted, planets perish and scatter across the wastes of the sky; other suns are kindled, new planets formed to make their revolutions or describe new orbits, and man, an infinitely minute part of a globe which itself is only an imperceptible point in the immense whole, believes that the universe is made for himself.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the insignificance of humanity in the vast universe and challenges egocentric views.
Baron D'Holbach's quote encapsulates a humbling perspective of humanity's place in the universe. It highlights the impermanence and transience of celestial bodies, suggesting that while stars and planets undergo cycles of existence, mankind often deludes itself into believing that the universe revolves around its own existence. This statement prompts a reflection on humility and the need to recognize that we are merely a small part of something infinitely larger than ourselves.
In practice
In a debate about environmentalism, this quote can highlight our interconnectedness with the universe and the importance of caring for our planet.
People have suffered and become insane for centuries by the thought of eternal punishment after death. Wouldn't it be better to depend on blind matter... than a god who puts out traps for people, invites them to sin, and allows them to sin and commit crimes he could prevent. Only to finally get the barbarian pleasure to punish them in an excessive way, of no use for himself, without them changing their ways and without their example preventing others from committing crimes.
Tolerance and freedom of thought are the veritable antidotes to religious fanaticism.
If we go back to the beginnings of things, we shall always find that ignorance and fear created the gods; that imagination, rapture and deception embellished them; that weakness worships them; that custom spares them; and that tyranny favors them in order to profit from the blindness of men.
To discover the true principles of Morality, men have no need of theology, of revelation, or of gods: They have need only of common sense.
Maybe we ought to consider a Golden Rule in foreign policy: Don't do to other nations what we don't want happening to us. We endlessly bomb these countries and then we wonder why they get upset with us?
Our memory fragments don't have any coherence until they're imagined in words. Time is a property of language, of syntax, and tense.
A dance is the devil's procession, and he that entereth into a dance, entereth into his possession.
When the mind soars in pursuit of the things conceived in space...it pursues emptiness; but when man dives deep within himself, he experiences the fullness of existence.
We will never be cleansed until we confess we are dirty. And we will never be able to wash the feet of those who have hurt us until we allow Jesus, the one we have hurt, to wash ours.
He lived in chambers that had once belonged to his deceased partner. They were a gloomy suite of rooms, in a lowering pile of building up a yard, where it had so little business to be, that one could scarcely help fancying it must have run there when it was a young house, playing at hide-and-seek with other houses, and forgotten the way out again.
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