A man is never so truly and intensely himself as when he is most possessed by God. It is impossible to say where, in the spiritual life, the human will leaves off and divine grace begins.
William Ralph IngeRead
If the universe is running down like a clock, the clock must have been wound up at a date which we could name if we knew it. The world, if it is to have an end in time, must have had a beginning in time.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that the universe requires a creator or initial cause for its existence and eventual end.
William Ralph Inge's quote emphasizes the philosophical concept of causality, suggesting that just as a clock needs to be wound to function, the universe must have originated from an initial cause or moment. It raises questions about the nature of time and existence, positing that if the universe is finite, it must have both a beginning and an eventual end, implying the need for an intelligent designer or force that initiated its creation.
In practice
In a lecture on cosmology, one might use this quote to spark a discussion about the origins of the universe.
A man is never so truly and intensely himself as when he is most possessed by God. It is impossible to say where, in the spiritual life, the human will leaves off and divine grace begins.
Don't get up from the feast of life without paying for your share of it.
Worry is interest paid on trouble before it comes due.
Deliberate cruelty to our defenceless and beautiful little cousins is surely one of the meanest and most detestable vices of which a human being can be guilty.
The enemies of freedom do not argue; they shout and they shoot.
Bereavement is the deepest initiation into the mysteries of human life, an initiation more searching and profound than even happy love.
I don't look at my old work. I mean, they made nice books; the books were made without me, the one from last year and the one from this year. I - personally, I'm not interested in my own past. I'm only interested in today - perhaps tomorrow.
Wherever the European has trod, death seems to pursue the aboriginal.
As it develops, then, the concept of social space becomes broader. It infiltrates, even invades, the concept of production, becoming part - perhaps the essential part - of its content.
It is impossible, in principle, to explain any pattern by invoking a single quantity.
If you ask me about my views on the environment, on women's rights, on gay rights, I am liberal. I don't have a problem with that at all. Some of my best friends are liberal.
Many people in Europe and the U.S. dispute the thesis that we are living through a clash of civilisations between Islam and the west. But a radical minority of Muslims firmly believes that Islam is under siege, and is committed to winning the holy war it has declared against the West.
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