Maimonides
Maimonides
Moshe ben Maimon, or Mūsā ibn Maymūn, acronymed Rambam, and GraecizedMoses Maimonides, a preeminent medieval Sephardic Jewish philosopher and astronomer, became one of the most prolific and influential Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages. Born in Cordova, Almoravid Empireon Passover Eve, 1135 or 1138, he died in Egypt on December 12, 1204, whence his body was taken to the lower Galilee and buried in Tiberias. He worked as a rabbi, physician, and philosopher in Morocco and Egypt...
NationalitySpanish
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth30 March 1135
CountrySpain
Maimonides quotes about
The Mutakallemim... apply the term non-existence only to absolute non-existence, and not to absence of properties. A property and the absence of that property are considered by them as two opposites, they treat, e.g. , blindness and sight, death and life, in the same way as heat and cold. Therefore they say, without any qualification, non-existence does not require any agent, an agent is required when something is produced.
Inspire me with love for my art and for thy creatures. In the sufferer let me see only the human being.
The generation of Isaiah did not require the detailed description; his account, "I saw the Lord," &c., sufficed. The generation of the Babylonian exile wanted to learn all the details. ...Isaiah was so familiar with it that he did not consider it necessary to communicate it to others as a new thing, especially as it was well known to the intelligent.
Do not imagine that these most difficult problems can be thoroughly understood by any one of us.
In accordance with the divine wisdom, genesis can only take place through destruction, and without destruction of the individual members of the species the species themselves would not exist permanently. Thus the true kindness, and beneficence, and goodness of God is clear.
The whole object of the Prophets and the Sages was to declare that a limit is set to human reason where it must halt.
Do not imagine that what we have said of the insufficiency of our understanding and of its limited extent is an assertion founded only on the Bible: for philosophers likewise assert the same, and perfectly understand it,- without having regard to any religion or opinion.
Those who are incapable of attaining to supreme religious values include the black coloured people and those who resemble them in their climates. Their nature is like the mute animals. Their level among existing things is below that of a man and above that of a monkey.
God cannot be compared to anything. Note this.
Astrology is a sickness, not a science ... It is a tree under the shade of which all sorts of superstitions thrive.
Those who grieve find comfort in weeping and in arousing their sorrow until the body is too tired to bear the inner emotions.
Giving is most blessed and most acceptable when the donor remains completely anonymous.
In the beginning we must simplify the subject, thus unavoidably falsifying it, and later we must sophisticate away the falsely simple beginning.
For that which is without a beginning, a final cause need not be sought.