{"author":"Maimonides","author_id":"Maimonides","total_quotes":20,"quotes":[{"text":"Your purpose...Should always be to know...The whole that was intended to be known.","author":"Maimonides","tags":["deeds","evil","good","scale","world"],"id":272,"author_id":"Maimonides"},{"text":"All the great evils which men cause to each other because of certain intentions, desires, opinions, or religious principles, are likewise due to non-existence, because they originate in ignorance, which is absence of wisdom.","author":"Maimonides","tags":["great","men","ignorance "],"id":5961,"author_id":"Maimonides"},{"text":"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.","author":"Maimonides","tags":["understanding","bible "],"id":28467,"author_id":"Maimonides"},{"text":"Now, we occupy a lowly position, both in space and rank in comparison with the heavenly sphere, and the Almighty is Most High not in space, but with respect to absolute existence, greatness and power.","author":"Maimonides","tags":["power","greatness","space "],"id":33418,"author_id":"Maimonides"},{"text":"Transient bodies are only subject to destruction through their substance and not through their form, nor can the essence of their form be destroyed; in this respect, they are permanent.","author":"Maimonides","tags":["substance","essence","through "],"id":60525,"author_id":"Maimonides"},{"text":"When the Rabbis stated that obedience or disobedience to the commandments depends not on the will of Hashem but on man’s free will, they echoed Jeremiah, who said, “Out of the mouth of the Most High there comes neither the bad nor the good” (Lamentations 3:38). By the bad he meant vice, and by the good he intended virtue, meaning that Hashem does not predetermine any person as bad or good. Since this is so, a person owes it to himself to mourn his sins and transgressions, since he has committed them of his own free will, as Jeremiah says, “For what should a living man mourn? Let every man mourn because of his sins” (Lamentations 3:39). Jeremiah answers his question positively, telling us that the remedy for our disease lies with us. Just as our failings stemmed from our own free will, so do we have the power to repent of our evil deeds.","author":"Maimonides","tags":["free-will"],"id":75729,"author_id":"Maimonides"},{"text":"The person who wishes to attain human perfection should study logic first, next mathematics, then physics, and, lastly, metaphysics.","author":"Maimonides","tags":["logic","mathematics","metaphysics","philosophy","physics","self-improvement","wisdom"],"id":108526,"author_id":"Maimonides"},{"text":"He, however, who begins with Metaphysics, will not only become confused in matters of religion, but will fall into complete infidelity.","author":"Maimonides","tags":["fall","confused","matters "],"id":133990,"author_id":"Maimonides"},{"text":"You will certainly not doubt the necessity of studying astronomy and physics, if you are desirous of comprehending the relation between the world and Providence as it is in reality, and not according to imagination.","author":"Maimonides","tags":["reality","world","studying "],"id":207364,"author_id":"Maimonides"},{"text":"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. ","author":"Maimonides","tags":["day","man","fish "],"id":297439,"author_id":"Maimonides"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":20,"pages":2,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}