Nothing is constant but change! All existence is a perpetual flux of "being and becoming!" That is the broad lesson of the evolution of the world.
Ernst HaeckelRead
We are compelled by reflection to recognize that God is not to be placed against the material world [as in Christianity], but must be placed as a 'divine power' or 'moving spirit' within the cosmos itself ... All the wonderful phenomena of nature around us, organic as well as inorganic, are only various products of one and the same original force.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that God should be viewed as an inherent force within the universe rather than separate from it.
Ernst Haeckel's quote emphasizes the idea that the divine should not be considered as an entity separate from the material world. Instead, he portrays God as a pervasive force or spirit that actively contributes to the cosmos, implying that everything in nature—whether living or non-living—is a manifestation of this singular original force. This perspective challenges traditional views of religion and encourages a more integrated understanding of spirituality and nature.
Themes
GodNatureCosmosSpiritualityForce
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about environmental conservation, one might quote this to emphasize the sacredness of nature.
More from Ernst Haeckel
All quotes →Similar quotes
It becomes still more difficult to find Words at once true and kind, Or not untrue and not unkind.
Philip LarkinRead
Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. . . look to Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.
C. S. LewisRead
All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones.
Benjamin FranklinRead
The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position.
George WashingtonRead
The mountebank told them that God was surely trying to kill them, possibly because He was through with them, and that they should have the good manners to die. This, as you can see, they did.
Kurt VonnegutRead
All rulers in all ages have tried to impose a false view of the world upon their followers.
George OrwellRead