Nicolas Malebranche quotes

Nicolas Malebranche was a French philosopher and theologian, noted for his work in rationalism and the philosophy of mind. His philosophy emphasized the role of God as the mediator of all human knowledge and perception. He significantly influenced later thinkers by proposing that humans see all things in God. Here are 19 of his quotes:

We are made to know and love God.

Nicolas Malebranche

As our bodies live upon the earth and find sustenance in the fruits which it produces, so our minds feed on the same truths as the intelligible and immutable substance of the divine Word contains.

Nicolas Malebranche

He has willed - He wills incessantly - that the modifications of the mind and those of the body shall be reciprocal. This is the conjunction and the natural dependence of the two parts of which we are constituted.

Nicolas Malebranche

Do not fear lest you should meditate too much upon Him and speak of Him in an unworthy way, providing you are led by faith. Do not fear lest you should entertain false opinions of Him so long as they are in conformity with the notion of the infinitely perfect Being.

Nicolas Malebranche

Just as our eyes need light in order to see, our minds need ideas in order to create.

Nicolas Malebranche

The inner sensation which I have of myself informs me that I am, that I think, that I will, that I have sensory awareness, that I suffer, and so on; but it provides me with no knowledge whatever of what I am - of the nature of my thought, my sensations, my passions, or my pain - or the mutual relations that obtain between all these things ... I have no idea whatever of my soul.

Nicolas Malebranche

God transforms, so to speak, this air into words, into various sounds. He makes you understand these various sounds through the modifications by which you are affected.

Nicolas Malebranche

All creatures are united to God alone in an immediate union. They depend essentially and directly upon Him. Being all alike equally impotent, they cannot be in reciprocal dependence upon one another.

Nicolas Malebranche

I beg of you always to dwell upon the necessity of a thorough understanding of principles, in order to stop the vivacity of his mind, and please do not forget to meditate upon the subject of our discussion.

Nicolas Malebranche

We see things in this material world, wherein our bodies dwell, only because our mind through its attention lives in another world, only because it contemplates the beauties of the archetypal and intelligible world which Reason contains.

Nicolas Malebranche

I love good and pleasure, I hate evil and pain, I want to be happy and I am not mistaken in believing, that people, angels and even demons have those same inclinations.

Nicolas Malebranche

Our soul is not united to our body in the ordinary sense of these terms. It is immediately and directly united to God alone.

Nicolas Malebranche

God joins us together by means of the body, in consequence of the laws of the communication of movements. He affects us with the same feelings in consequence of the laws of the conjunction of body and soul.

Nicolas Malebranche

Prejudices are not easily got rid of as an old coat which is no longer thought of.

Nicolas Malebranche

You cannot of yourself move your arm or alter your position, situation, posture, do to other men good or evil, or effect the least change in the world.

Nicolas Malebranche

You find yourself in the world, without any power, immovable as a rock, stupid, so to speak, as a log of wood.

Nicolas Malebranche

I am unable, when I turn to myself, to recognize any of my faculties or my capacities. The inner sensation which I have of myself informs me that I am, that I think, that I will, that I have sensory awareness, that I suffer, and so on; but it provides me with no knowledge whatever of what I am - of the nature of my thought, my sensations, my passions, or my pain - or the mutual relations that obtain between all these things ... I have no idea whatever of my soul.

Nicolas Malebranche