WISDOM: The quest to find god

During one of my Lectio Divina (Philippians 2:5) meditations, I thought about the wisdom that Christ came to give us through revelation. I also thought of how great thinkers have taught us what the appropriate behavior for humans is. In his simple message of “love others as I have loved you,” Christ is the fulfillment of all the thinkers. Maybe being the Son of God has something to do with it, don’t you think? I offer you some wise sayings of some prominent thinkers and some Scriptural references from the Book of Wisdom and Gospels to give you a sense that these thinkers were on the right track but not quite there. You be the judge.

AZQuotes.com. Retrieved July 18, 2020, from AZQuotes.com Web site: https://www.azquotes.com/quote/658201

HERACLITUS

• The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts. Think only on those things that are in line with your principles and can bear the light of day. The content of your character is your choice. Day by day, what you choose, what you think, and what you do is who you become. Your integrity is your destiny … it is the light that guides your way.
• The world is nothing but a great desire to live and a great dissatisfaction with living.
• Dogs bark at what they don’t understand.
• Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character.
• Because it is so unbelievable, the Truth often escapes being known.
• If you do not expect the unexpected, you will not recognize it when it arrives.
• All things flow, nothing abides. You cannot step into the same river twice, for the waters are continually flowing on. Nothing is permanent except change.

PYTHAGORAS

• The soul of man is divided into three parts, intelligence, reason, and passion. Intelligence and passion are possessed by other animals, but reason by man alone.
• Know thyself and thou wilt know the universe.
• We come from God. As the tree from the root and the stream from the spring; that’s why we should always be in contact with Him, as the trunk from the root. Because the stream dries up when it is separated from the spring and the tree dies when is uprooted.
• It is better to be silent, than to dispute with the Ignorant.
• In anger, we should refrain both from speech and action.
• Each celestial body, in fact, each and every atom, produces a particular sound on account of its movement, its rhythm or vibration. All these sounds and vibrations form a universal harmony in which each element while having its own function and character, contributes to the whole.

PLATO

• No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth.
• Be kind. Every person you meet is fighting a difficult battle.
• Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.
• The right question is usually more important than the right answer.
• Mankind will never see an end of trouble until lovers of wisdom come to hold political power, or the holders of power become lovers of wisdom.
• Don’t force your children into your ways, for they were created for a time different from your own.
• Someday, in the distant future, our grand-children’s grand-children will develop a new equivalent of our classrooms. They will spend many hours in front of boxes with fires glowing within. May they have the wisdom to know the difference between light and knowledge.
• When you feel grateful, you become great and eventually attract great things.

THALES

• Avoid doing what you would blame others for doing.
• The most difficult thing in life is to know yourself.
• What is it that is most beautiful? – The Universe; for it is the work of God. What is most powerful? – Necessity; because it triumphs over all things. What is most difficult? – To know one’s self. What is most easy? – To give advice. What method must we take to lead a good life? – To do nothing we would condemn in others. What is necessary to happiness? – A sound body and a contented mind.
• The past is certain, the future obscure.
• Time is the wisest of all things that are; for it brings everything to light.
• A multitude of words is no proof of a prudent mind.

ANAXIMANDER

• There are many worlds and many systems of Universes existing all at the same time, all of them perishable.
• The source from which existing things derive their existence is also that to which they return at their destruction.
• Immortal and indestructible, surrounds all and directs all.

DEMOCRITUS

• Happiness resides not in possessions, and not in gold, happiness dwells in the soul.
• Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion.
• The man enslaved to wealth can never be honest.
• Everywhere man blames nature and fate yet his fate is mostly but the echo of his character and passion, his mistakes, and his weaknesses.
• Life unexamined is not worth living.
• Our sins are more easily remembered than our good deeds.

ARISTOTLE

• Be a free thinker and don’t accept everything you hear as truth. Be critical and evaluate what you believe in.
• Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives – choice, not chance, determines your destiny.
• The most important relationship we can all have is the one you have with yourself, the most important journey you can take is one of self-discovery. To know yourself, you must spend time with yourself, you must not be afraid to be alone. Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.
• Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.
• The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.
• A fool contributes nothing worth hearing and takes offense at everything.
• Criticism is something we can avoid easily by saying nothing, doing nothing.
• Some men are just as sure of the truth of their opinions as are others of what they know.
• Anybody can become angry – that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way – that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy.

SOCRATES

• Falling down is not a failure. Failure comes when you stay where you have fallen.
• Most people, including ourselves, live in a world of relative ignorance. We are even comfortable with that ignorance because it is all we know. When we first start facing the truth, the process may be frightening, and many people run back to their old lives. But if you continue to seek the truth, you will eventually be able to handle it better. In fact, you want more! It’s true that many people around you now may think you are weird or even a danger to society, but you don’t care. Once you’ve tasted the truth, you won’t ever want to go back to being ignorant.
• What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?
• If you want to be wrong then follow the masses.
• The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.
• When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser.
• Awareness of ignorance is the beginning of wisdom.
• In every person, there is a sun. Just let them shine.
• What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?
• I know that I am intelligent because I know that I know nothing.

PARMENIDES

• We can speak and think only of what exists. And what exists is uncreated and imperishable for it is whole and unchanging and complete. It was not or nor shall be different since it is now, all at once, one and continuous.
• Being alone is and nothing is altogether not.
• Gaze steadfastly at things which, though far away, are yet present to the mind.
• Let reason alone decide.

ZENO OF ELEA

• By silence, I hear other men’s imperfections and conceal my own.
• The goal of life is living in agreement with nature.
• The avaricious man is like the barren sandy ground of the desert which sucks in all the rain and dew with greediness but yields no fruitful herbs or plants for the benefit of others.
• Beauty is the flower of chastity.

EMPEDOCLES

• There are forces in nature called Love and Hate. The force of Love causes elements to be attracted to each other and to be built up into some particular form or person, and the force of Hate causes the decomposition of things.
• Each man believes only his experience.
• Having glimpsed a small part of life, men rise up and disappear as smoke, knowing only what each one has learned.
• The force that unites the elements to become all things is Love, also called Aphrodite; Love brings together dissimilar elements into a unity, to become a composite thing. Love is the same force that human beings find at work in themselves whenever they feel joy, love and peace. Strife, on the other hand, is the force responsible for the dissolution of the one back into its many, the four elements of which it was composed.
• Many fires burn below the surface.

LUCRETIUS

• The greatest wealth is to live content with little, for there is never want where the mind is satisfied.
• No matter how difficult a task may look.. Persistence and steady action will get you through.
• Nothing can be created out of nothing.
• Why shed tears that you must die? For if your past life has been one of enjoyment, and if all your pleasures have not passed through your mind, as through a sieve, and vanished, leaving not a rack behind, why then do you not, like a thankful guest, rise cheerfully from life’s feast, and with a quiet mind go take your rest.
• The water hollows out the stone, not by force but drop by drop.
• So it is more useful to watch a man in times of peril, and in adversity to discern what kind of man he is; for then at last words of truth are drawn from the depths of his heart, and the mask is torn off, reality remains.

EPICURUS

• Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.
• The things you really need are few and easy to come by; but the things you can imagine you need are infinite, and you will never be satisfied.
• Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?
• Not what we have But what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance.
• He who has peace of mind disturbs neither himself nor another.

PLOTINUS

• You can only apprehend the Infinite by a faculty that is superior to reason.
• The soul that beholds beauty becomes beautiful.
• We are not separated from spirit, we are in it.
• In this state of absorbed contemplation, there is no longer any question of holding an object in view; the vision is such that seeing and seen are one; object and act of vision have become identical.
• I am striving to give back the Divine in myself to the Divine in the All.
• Withdraw into yourself and look.

SIRACH

All wisdom^* is from the Lord

and remains with him forever.^a

2The sands of the sea, the drops of rain,

the days of eternity—who can count them?

3Heaven’s height, earth’s extent,

the abyss and wisdom—who can explore them?

4Before all other things wisdom was created;

and prudent understanding from eternity.^†

6The root of wisdom—to whom has it been revealed?

Her subtleties—who knows them?^† b

8^* There is but one, wise and truly awesome,

seated upon his throne—the Lord.

9It is he who created her,

saw her and measured her,^c

Poured her forth upon all his works,

10upon every living thing according to his bounty,

lavished her upon those who love him.

Fear of the Lord Is Wisdom^*

11The fear of the Lord^* is glory and exultation,

gladness and a festive crown.

12The fear of the Lord rejoices the heart,

giving gladness, joy, and long life.^†

13Those who fear the Lord will be happy at the end,

even on the day of death, they will be blessed.

14The beginning of wisdom is to fear the Lord;

she is created with the faithful in the womb.^d

15With the godly she was created from of old,

and with their descendants, she will keep the faith.

16The fullness of wisdom is to fear the Lord;

she inebriates them with her fruits.^e

17Their entire house she fills with choice foods,

their granaries with her produce.

18The crown of wisdom is the fear of the Lord,

flowering with peace and perfect health.^†

19Knowledge and full understanding she rains down;

she heightens the glory of those who possess her.

20The root of wisdom is to fear the Lord;

her branches are long life.

21The fear of the Lord drives away sins;

where it abides, it turns back all anger.

22Unjust anger can never be justified;

anger pulls a person to utter ruin.

23^* Until the right time, the patient remain calm,

then cheerfulness comes back to them.

24Until the right time, they hold back their words;

then the lips of many will tell of their good sense.

25Among wisdom’s treasures are the model for knowledge;

but godliness is an abomination to the sinner.

26If you desire wisdom, keep the commandments,

and the Lord will bestow her upon you;

27For the fear of the Lord is wisdom and discipline;

faithfulness and humility are his delights.

28Do not disobey the fear of the Lord,^*

do not approach it with the duplicity of heart.^f

29Do not be a hypocrite before others;

over your lips, keep watch.

30 Do not exalt yourself lest you fall

and bring dishonor upon yourself;

For then, the Lord will reveal your secrets

and cast you down in the midst of the assembly.

Because you did not approach the fear of the Lord,

and your heart was full of deceit.

http://www.usccb.org/sirach

REFLECTION

Looking at all the wisdom in these persons gives me hope that humanity, although wounded by Original Sin, still possesses the urge to seek the way, the truth, and the life.