No one should approach the temple of science with the soul of a money changer.
Thomas BrowneRead
We all labour against our own cure, for death is the cure of all diseases.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that humans often resist their own healing because death ultimately resolves all suffering.
Thomas Browne's quote reflects on the paradox of life and death. It highlights the human struggle against mortality, implying that our efforts to overcome suffering and disease can be futile since death is the final resolution for all pains. This thought-provoking perspective invites contemplation on the nature of existence, healing, and the inevitability of death as an ultimate 'cure'.
In practice
During a philosophical discussion about the meaning of life and death.
No one should approach the temple of science with the soul of a money changer.
Content may dwell in all stations. To be low but above contempt may be high enough to be happy.
Thus there are two books from whence I collect my Divinity; besides that written one of God, another of his servant Nature, that universal and public Manuscript, that lies expans'd unto the eyes of all; those that never saw him in the one, have discovered him in the other.
To be content with death may be better than to desire it.
Life itself is but the shadow of death, and souls departed but the shadows of the living.
The long habit of living indisposeth us for dying.
Lord, where shall I find you? Your place is lofty and secret. And where shall I not find you? The whole earth is full of your glory! You are found in our innermost heart, yet you fixed earth's boundaries. You are a strong tower for those who are near and the trust of those who go far. I have sought to come near you; I have called to you with all my heart; and when I went out towards you, I found you coming towards me.
Whatever I have up till now accepted as most true and assured I have gotten either from the senses or through the senses. But from time to time I have found that the senses deceive, and it is prudent never to trust completely those who have deceived us even once.
However insignificant the minority, and however trifling the proposed trespass against their rights, no such trespass is permissible.
I believe in human dignity as the source of national purpose, human liberty as the source of national action, the human heart as the source of national compassion, and in the human mind as the source of our invention and our ideas
I have often been asked, Do not people bore you? I do not understand quite what that means. I suppose the calls of the stupid and curious, especially of newspaper reporters, are always inopportune. I also dislike people who try to talk down to my understanding. They are like people who when walking with you try to shorten their steps to suit yours; the hypocrisy in both cases is equally exasperating.
We have a habit of turning to scientists when we want factual answers and artists when we want entertainment, but where are the facts about the nature of the self? Neurologists peering at PET scans and fMRIs know they aren't seeing the soul in there.
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