"When he to whom one speaks does..." - Quote by Voltaire
When he to whom one speaks does not understand, and he who speaks himself does not understand, that is Metaphysics.
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More by Voltaire
“A minister of state is excusable for the harm he does when the helm of government has forced his hand in a storm; but in the calm he is guilty of all the good he does not do.”
“In every province, the chief occupations, in order of importance, are lovemaking, malicious gossip, and talking nonsense.”
“Now, you receive all your ideas; therefore you receive your wish, you wish therefore necessarily. The word "liberty" does not therefore belong in any way to your will....The will, therefore, is not a faculty that one can call free. A free will is an expression absolutely void of sense, and what the scholastics have called will of indifference, that is to say willing without cause, is a chimera unworthy of being combated.”
More on Metaphysics
“A metaphysician is one who, when you remark that twice two makes four, demands to know what you mean by twice, what by two, what by makes, and what by four. For asking such questions metaphysicians are supported in oriental luxury in the universities, and respected as educated and intelligent men.”
“When one man speaks to another man who doesn't understand him, and when a man who's speaking no longer understands, it's metaphysics.”
“It must be understood that prime matter, and form as well, is neither generated nor corrupted, because every generation is from something to something. Now that from which generation proceeds is matter, and that to which it proceeds is form. So that, if matter or form were generated, there would be a matter for matter and a form for form, endlessly. Whence, there is generation only of the composite, properly speaking.”
