"[A]s the great extreme of dimension is sublime, so the last extreme of littleness is in the same measure sublime... when we attend to the infinite divisibility of matter, when we pursue animal life into these excessively small, and yet organized beings... when we push our discoveries yet downward... in tracing which the imagination is lost as well as the sense; we become amazed and confounded at the wonders of minuteness; nor can we distinguish in its effects this extreme of littleness from the vast itself. For division must be infinite as well as addition; because the idea of a perfect unity can no more be arrived at, than that of an complete whole, to which nothing can be added."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sublime_(philosophy)
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Sublime (philosophy)
80 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Sublime (philosophy) →
Related Quotes
"The feeling of [the sublime] is sometimes accompanied with dread, or even melancholy, in some cases with tranquil adm…"
"Deep solitude is sublime, but in a terrific manner."
"The sublime must be simple, the beautiful may be dressed and ornamented."
"In the Old Testament stories... the sublime influence of God here reaches so deeply into the everyday that the two re…"
"I resolved, therefore, to bend my studies towards the Holy Scriptures, that I might see what they were. But behold, I…"
"It frequently happens that where the second line is sublime, the third, in which he meant to rise still higher, is pe…"
"Without minute neatness of execution the sublime cannot exist. Grandeur of ideas is precision of ideas. Singular and …"
"Hypocrisy, of course, delights in the most sublime speculations; for, never intending to go beyond speculation, it co…"
"That passage is what I call the sublime dashed to pieces by cutting too close with the fiery four-in-hand round the c…"
"A somewhat old age unites itself more with the properties of the sublime, but youth with those of the beautiful."