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Since Science's Competence Extends To Observable And Measurable Phenomena, Not To The Inner Being Of Things, And To The Means, Not To The Ends Of Human Life, It Would Be Nonsense To Expect That The Progress Of Science Will Provide Men With A New Type Of Metaphysics, Ethics, Or Religion.

-Jacques Maritain

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Since Science's Competence Extends

Jacques Maritain

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Since Science's Competence Extends To Observable And Measurable Phenomena, Not To The Inner Being Of Things, And To The Means, Not To The Ends Of Human Life, It Would Be Nonsense To Expect That The Progress Of Science Will Provide Men With A New Type Of Metaphysics, Ethics, Or Religion.

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Aim Of Education

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Since Science's Competence Extends To Observable And Measurable Phenomena, Not To The Inner Being Of Things, And To The Means, Not To The Ends Of Human Life, It Would Be Nonsense To Expect That The Progress Of Science Will Provide Men With A New Type Of Metaphysics, Ethics, Or Religion.

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That Is Why I Think, In Defiance Of Plato, That There Is At Once Error And Vulgarity In Saying That Poetry Is A Lie, Except In The Sense That Cocteau Wrote One Day: I Am A Lie Who Always Tells The Truth. The Only Poetry Which Lies Purely And Simply Is Academic, Pseudo-classical, Conceptually Repetitive Poetry, And It Is Not Poetry.

The Equality Of Rights Of All Citizens Is The Basic Tenet Of Modern Democratic Societies.

It Is Necessary That The Object That The Artist Is Shaping, Whether It Be A Vase Of Clay Or A Fishing Boat, Be Significant Of Something Other Than Itself. This Object Must Be A Sign As Well As An Object; A Meaning Must Animate It, And Make It Say More Than It Is.

If It Is Correct To Say That There Will Always Be Rightist Temperaments And Leftist Temperaments, It Is Nevertheless Also Correct To Say That Political Philosophy Is Neither Rightist Nor Leftist; It Must Simply Be True .

Western Humanism Has Religious And Transcendent Sources Without Which It Is Incomprehensible To Itself.

It Is Implanted In The Christian Soul, By The Side Of The Running Waters, Under The Sky Of The Theological Virtues, Amid The Breaths Of The Seven Gifts Of The Spirit. It Is Natural For It To Bear Christian Fruit.

Gifts Of The Spirit

At Each Epoch Of History The World Was In A Hopeless State, And At Each Epoch Of History The World Muddled Through; At Each Epoch The World Was Lost, And At Each Epoch It Was Saved.

A Man Of Courage Flees Forward In The Midst Of New Things.

When One's Function Is To Teach The Loftiest Wisdom, It Is Difficult To Resist The Temptation To Believe That Until You Have Spoken, Nothing Has Been Said.

I Don't See America As A Mainland, But As A Sea, A Big Ocean. Sometimes A Storm Arises, A Formidable Current Develops, And It Seems It Will Engulf Everything. Wait A Moment, Another Current Will Appear And Bring The First One To Naught.

It Has Never Been Recommended To Confuse "loving" With "seeking To Please"... ...salome Pleased Herod's Guests; I Can Hardly Believe She Was Burning With Love For Them. As For Poor John The Baptist... ...she Certainly Did Not Envelop Him In Her Love.

Nothing Is More Human Than For Man To Desire Naturally Things Impossible To His Nature. It Is, Indeed, The Property Of A Nature Which Is Not Closed Up In Matter Like The Nature Of Physical Things, But Which Is Intellectual Or Infinitized By The Spirit. It Is The Property Of A Metaphysical Nature. Such Desires Reach For The Infinite, Because The Intellect Thirsts For Being And Being Is Infinite.

Power Without Authority Is Tyranny.

The More The Poet Grows, The Deeper The Level Of Creative Intuition Descends Into The Density Of His Soul. Where Formerly He Could Be Moved To Song, He Can Do Nothing Now, He Must Dig Deeper.

There Is Nothing Man Desires More Than A Heroic Life: There Is Nothing Less Common To Men Than Heroism.

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Absolute Atheism Starts In An Act Of Faith In Reverse Gear And Is A Full-blown Religious Commitment.

Gratitude Is The Most Exquisite Form Of Courtesy.

Things Are Opaque To Us, And We Are Opaque To Ourselves.

The Poet Knows Himself Only On The Condition That Things Resound In Him, And That In Him, At A Single Awakening, They And He Come Forth Together Out Of Sleep.

The Love Of Americans For Their Country Is Not An Indulgent, It Is An Exacting And Chastising Love; They Cannot Tolerate Its Defects.

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Poetic Experience Is Distinct In Nature From Mystical Experience. Because Poetry Emanates From The Free Creativity Of The Spirit,it Is From The Very Start Oriented Toward Expression, And Terminates In A Word Proffered, It Wants To Speak; Whereas Mystical Because It Emanates From The Deepest Longing Of The Spirit Bent On Knowing, Tends Of Itself Toward Silence And Internal Fruition. Poetic Experience Is Busy With The Created World And The Enigmatic And Innumerable Relations Of Existents With One Another, Not With The Principle Of Being.

Mystical Experiences

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Places In The World

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Absolute Atheism Starts In An Act Of Faith In Reverse Gear And Is A Full-blown Religious Commitment. Here We Have The First Internal Inconsistency Of Contemporary Atheism: It Proclaims That All Religion Must Necessarily Vanish Away, And It Is Itself A Religious Phenomenon.

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The Tragedy Of The Modern Democracies Is That They Have Not Yet Succeeded In Realizing Democracy.

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