Man
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6.The paradox of man's greatness and wretchedness
6a.Man as a chimera, middle being between angel and brute
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of ChristVol. 7
- p. 330–331Man is flesh, not angel or God; frailty means he cannot always remain in virtue, since even angel and first man fell.read · scan
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of DenmarkVol. 46
- p. 132–134Hamlet's speech on man: noble in reason, infinite in faculty, like an angel and a god, yet mere quintessence of dust.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 27–28Man is a nothing beside the Infinite, an all beside nothing, a mean between the two.read · scan
- p. 29Man holds a mean between extremes, limited in being and intellect.read · scan
- p. 29Extremes escape us: excess in qualities, youth, age, or education hinders us; we lie in a mean.read · scan
- p. 56A being born to know the universe and govern states is absorbed catching a hare; greatness and pettiness of man.read · scan
- p. 56–57Man is capable of little and much, neither angel nor brute; he cannot rise above humanity.read · scan
- p. 82Man torn between believing himself nothing or God.read · scan
- p. 120–121Man is neither angel nor brute; he who would act the angel acts the brute.read · scan
- p. 125Greatness of the soul lies in preserving the mean; to leave it is to abandon humanity; we are falsehood and contradiction.read · scan
- p. 132–133Man is divided against himself; an instinct lifts him despite misery.read · scan
- p. 133–134Man's nature seen by end is great, by the multitude is abject; philosophers dispute accordingly.read · scan
- p. 134–135Man's twofold nature; must know both his greatness and vileness, neither equal to brutes nor angels.read · scan
- p. 135Man is an incomprehensible monster; must know his value and vileness, love and hate himself.read · scan
- p. 141–142Man is naturally aware of both greatness and vileness; some tell him to be like God, others a worm.read · scan
- p. 142–143Man must be either equal to God or the brutes; he has fallen from his place and cannot find it.read · scan
- p. 144Man is a chimera and paradox: judge of all things yet a worm, depositary of truth yet sink of error.read · scan
- p. 162True religion must teach man's greatness and misery, esteem and contempt of self.read · scan
- p. 169–170Man's double capacity to receive and lose grace exposes him to despair or pride.read · scan
- p. 170–171Man's state is neither pure greatness nor pure littleness; misery leads to despair, pride to presumption.read · scan
- p. 172Christianity bids man see himself as vile yet desire to be like God, balancing vanity and abjectness.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, Minor WorksVol. 48
- p. 389Man's greatness and impotence; Epictetus ignores impotence.read · scan
- p. 392–393Man descends from self-attributed excellence to humility.read · scan
Alexander Pope, Solitude; On a Certain Lady at Court; Essay on ManVol. 40
- p. 413–415Man is a middle being, darkly wise and rudely great, both glory and riddle of the world; proper study of mankind is man.read · scan
- p. 440Man's low passions and glorious ends; true self-love and social are the same.read · scan
Lord Byron, ManfredVol. 18
- p. 415Man is half dust, half deity, torn between low wants and lofty will, and mortality wins.read · scan
- p. 437–442Abbot sees in Manfred a noble creature, a chaos of light and darkness, mind and dust, passions and pure thoughts.read · scan
6b.Greatness proved by wretchedness
Sir Walter Raleigh, Preface to the History of the WorldVol. 39
- p. 100Man is nobler than heavens yet ignorant, short-lived, borrowed in knowledge, presuming to examine God's creationread · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 122All man's dignity consists in thought, yet thought is both wonderful in nature and vile in its defects.read · scan
- p. 129–130Man's greatness lies in knowing himself miserable; a tree or ruined house is not miserable; miseries of a deposed king.read · scan
- p. 130–131Man's greatness shown even in lust, from which he drew a code and order of benevolence.read · scan
- p. 131Even those who despise men wish to be admired; nature convinces of greatness more than reason of baseness.read · scan
- p. 132Man's greatness is proved by his wretchedness: what is nature in animals is wretchedness in man, a fall from better nature.read · scan
- p. 134Greatness and wretchedness are deduced from each other; man knows he is wretched and thus is great.read · scan
- p. 148The more light, the more greatness and baseness we discover in man.read · scan
6c.The fall as explanation of man's double nature
See also: Philosophy 7a · Religion 1 · Sin 3a · God 2c
Dante Alighieri, PurgatoryVol. 20
- p. 179Dante sinks to sleep, having so much of Adam in him.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, ParadiseVol. 20
- p. 340–341Human nature was perfect only in Adam and Christ; other men vary in talents at birthread · scan
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of ChristVol. 7
- p. 215–216Human life on earth is a trial; man has fallen from perfect happiness and cannot find perfect security in the world.read · scan
- p. 325–326Man created in God's image yet wicked nature draws him to perdition.read · scan
- p. 326Human nature is fallen: good in creation but corrupted, its reason clouded yet discerning good and evil.read · scan
John Calvin, Dedication of the Institutes of the Christian ReligionVol. 39
- p. 47–48Man's state at creation, image of God, primitive integrity and later depravity.read · scan
Sir Philip Sidney, The Defense of PoesyVol. 27
- p. 10–11Man made in God's likeness rises above nature, yet is fallen; poets show what perfect men might be.read · scan
John Milton, Paradise LostVol. 4
- p. 331Adam laments man's wretched fall from God's image; Michael says men defaced the image by serving appetite.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 55Two contrary instincts: one from misery seeks amusement abroad, the other a remnant of original greatness says happiness lies in rest.read · scan
- p. 131–132Man is a strange monster fallen from his place, anxiously seeking it.read · scan
- p. 136Man's present emptiness shows a fallen nature.read · scan
- p. 137–138Man has fallen from his place, does not know his rank, and shows both greatness and wretchedness.read · scan
- p. 138Created perfect, with light and intelligence, man fell into darkness, mortality and woe.read · scan
- p. 139Contradictory feelings of greatness amid woe point to a double nature.read · scan
- p. 139–140Man's contradictions reflect two states, creation and fall; only God explains who he is.read · scan
- p. 145Man has an idea of happiness and truth but cannot attain them, showing a fall from perfection.read · scan
- p. 145In creation and grace man is like God; in corruption he is like the beasts.read · scan
- p. 146Scripture shows man by grace like God and without grace like brute beasts.read · scan
- p. 146–147We perceive within us marks of excellence and daily results of deplorable condition.read · scan
- p. 147–148Man is weak, desiring truth and happiness but finding uncertainty and misery; the desire shows whence he has fallen.read · scan
- p. 160–161Man's dignity in innocence was dominion over creatures; now he is subject to them.read · scan
- p. 165–166Man is not worthy of God but not incapable of being made worthy; self-knowledge and grace go together.read · scan
- p. 181Religion explains the whole nature of man and the whole course of the world.read · scan
- p. 181–182Man must know both God and his own corruption; knowing only one leads to philosophers' pride or atheists' despair.read · scan
- p. 182Man's wretchedness must be known alongside God; knowing one without the other leads to error.read · scan
- p. 183Man's natural state is to see and not see: enough to know he has lost happiness, not enough to possess it.read · scan
- p. 183–184Men are unworthy by corruption yet capable of God by original nature.read · scan
- p. 185Everything on earth shows man's wretchedness or God's mercy; weakness without God, strength with Him.read · scan
- p. 191–192Obscurity makes man aware of his corruption, light gives hope of remedy; knowing God without wretchedness is dangerous.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, LettersVol. 48
- p. 335–336Human nature created with dual loves, corrupted by the fall.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, Minor WorksVol. 48
- p. 393–395Man exalted to companionship with God is hurled down to the nature of brutes.read · scan
- p. 396Errors arise from ignoring that man's present state differs from creation: first greatness and present corruption.read · scan
- p. 397Man's greatness and weakness are placed in different subjects: infirmity belongs to nature, power to grace.read · scan
- p. 398Philosophers oscillate between man's greatness and his infirmity; the Gospel reconciles both through redemption from sin.read · scan
John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's ProgressVol. 15
- p. 227–228Man is defined as a reasonable creature made by God who by sin fell into captivity and misery.read · scan
William Penn, Some Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1
- p. 324Man is a contradiction to himself, by corruption not constitution.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, NatureVol. 5
- p. 227–228Man is fallen while nature is erect, a thermometer of the divine sentiment in man.read · scan
6d.Man's aspiration beyond his limits
Dante Alighieri, PurgatoryVol. 20
- p. 191Men born to soar are baffled by slight winds; few hasten when told the way is open.read · scan
- p. 191Men, born to soar, are held back by trivial things.read · scan
Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Life Is a DreamVol. 26
- p. 7Man has aspiration and aptitude transcending other creatures yet is worse treated.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 128Man wishes for happiness and truth but lacks power; cannot even doubt.read · scan
Alexander Pope, Solitude; On a Certain Lady at Court; Essay on ManVol. 40
- p. 407–411Man's bliss is not to act beyond mankind; finer senses would only torment him.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Tragedy of Faust, Part IVol. 19
- p. 27–29Faust claims to be God's image and the spirit's equal but is shown a crushed, cowering worm.read · scan
- p. 31–33Faust, seeing himself as God's image, is dwarfed by the spirit and thrust back to humanity's uncertain fate.read · scan
- p. 71–73Faust would know all human weal and woe in his own heart and share the shipwreck of mankind.read · scan
- p. 73–75Faust feels he has gained no power nor nearness to the infinite despite man's gathered thought; remains what he is.read · scan
Friedrich von Schiller, Letters upon the Aesthetic Education of ManVol. 32
- p. 281–282Realization of infinite in finite makes possible the most sublime humanity.read · scan
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, On Poesy or ArtVol. 27
- p. 261–262Feeling greater than its cause proves man designed for a higher state; architecture shows man's greatness and teaches humility.read · scan
Lord Byron, ManfredVol. 18
- p. 411Manfred claims his mind, the Promethean spark, equals the spirits' essence though coop'd in clay; man is child of clay.read · scan
- p. 434–437Spirits remark that seeking things beyond mortality is the lot of a mortal.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, CirclesVol. 5
- p. 151No fixtures to men; each feels an unknown residuum and greater possibility beyond what is understood.read · scan
- p. 152Man's moods and powers ebb and flow; he strives to rise above himself, is 'God in nature' yet 'a weed by the wall'.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, CharacterVol. 5
- p. 189Only man attempts beyond his force; things in nature act exactly per their quality and quantity, but man has pretension.read · scan
Robert Browning, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1087Human striving exceeds attainment; flawless craft lacks aspiration and soul.read · scan
- p. 1096–1097Artist longs to be simply the man and gain man's joy while missing the artist's sorrow.read · scan
- p. 1103–1105Man is unlike the contented brute: a spark of soul disturbs his clod, making him nearer God, a God in the germ.read · scan
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