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Science and mathematics
Run parallel to reality, they symbolize it, they squint at it,
They never touch it: consider what an explosion
Would rock the bones of men into little white fragments and unsky the world
If any mind for a moment touch truth.

— Robinson Jeffers The Silent Shepherds (1958)

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More quotes by Robinson Jeffers

I have seen these ways of God: I know of no reason
For fire and change and torture and the old returnings.

Corruption never has been compulsory; when the cities lie at the monster's feet there are left the mountains.

At least Love your eyes that can see, your mind that can
Hear the music, the thunder of the wings. Love the wild swan.

Love the Wild Swan (1935)

Know that however ugly the parts appear
the whole remains beautiful.

The Answer (1936)

Reason will not decide at last; the sword will decide.
The sword: an obsolete instrument of bronze or steel,
formerly used to kill men, but here
In the sense of a symbol.

Contemplation of The Sword (1938)

All Robinson Jeffers quotes →

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The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.

H. P. Lovecraft The Call of Cthulhu (1926)

All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom.

Albert Einstein Moral Decay (1937)

Science and religion are two human enterprises sharing many features.

Freeman Dyson Infinite in All Directions (1988)

To doubt everything or to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with the necessity of reflection.

Henri Poincaré Science and Hypothesis (1901)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Robinson Jeffers (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.