Giordano Bruno Quotes
1548 – February 17, 1600
More Giordano Bruno Quotes
Se non è vero, è molto ben trovato.
Giordano Bruno— If it is not true it is very well invented.De gl' heroici furori (1585) [The Heroic Furies; also translated as On Heroic Frenzies], as quoted in A Book of Quotations, Proverbs and Household Words (1907) edited by Sir William Gurney BenhamVariant translations:
If it is not true, it is well conceived.
If it is not true, it is a good story.
Maiori forsan cum timore sententiam in me fertis quam ego accipiam.
Giordano Bruno— Perchance you who pronounce my sentence are in greater fear than I who receive it.His famous response to his judges upon his conviction as a heretic, prior to his transfer to the civil authorities for execution. (16 February 1600); as quoted by Gaspar Schopp of Breslau in a letter to Conrad Rittershausen; as translated in Giordano Bruno : His Life and Thought (1950) by Dorothea Waley Singer
Since I have spread my wings to purpose high, The more beneath my feet the clouds I see, The more I give the winds my pinions free, Spurning the earth and soaring to the sky .
Giordano Bruno— As quoted in "Giordano Bruno" by Thomas Davidson, in The Index Vol. VI. No. 36 (4 March 1886), p. 429
Chi vuole che la quaresima gli paia corta, si faccia debito per pagare a Pasqua.
Giordano Bruno— Candelaio, Act IV, Scene XVII. — (Lucia.)Translation: He who wants Lent to seem short, should contract a debt to be repaid at Easter.Translation reported in Harbottle’s Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 275.
The Divine Light is always in man , presenting itself to the senses and to the comprehension, but man rejects it.
Giordano Bruno— As quoted in Life and Teachings of Giordano Bruno : Philosopher, Martyr, Mystic 1548 - 1600 (1913) by Coulson Turnbull
I understand Being in all and over all, as there is nothing without participation in Being, and there is no being without Essence . Thus nothing can be free of the Divine Presence .
Giordano Bruno— As quoted in "Giordano Bruno" - Theosophy Vol. 26, No. 8 (June 1938)
Nature is none other than God in things... Animals and plants are living effects of Nature; Whence all of God is in all things... Think thus, of the sun in the crocus, in the narcissus, in the heliotrope, in the rooster, in the lion .
Giordano Bruno— As quoted in Elements of Pantheism (2004) by Paul A. Harrison
Time is the father of truth , its mother is our mind .
Giordano Bruno— Quote as translated in The Encyclopedia of Religion Vol. 11 (1987), by Mircea Eliade, p. 459
A constellation of the most pedantic , obstinate ignorance and presumption , mixed with a kind of rustic incivility, which would try the patience of Job .
Giordano Bruno— Declaration about the scholars of England, particularly those of Oxford.
Everything that makes diversity of kinds, of species, differences, properties… everything that consists in generation, decay, alteration and change is not an entity, but a condition and circumstance of entity and being, which is one, infinite, immobile, subject, matter, life , death , truth , lies , good and evil .
Giordano Bruno— Variant: Everything that makes diversity of kinds, of species. differences, properties, everything that consists in generation, decay, alteration and change, is not an entity, but condition and circumstances of entity and being, which is one, infinite, immobile, subject, matter, life, soul, truth and good.
When the end comes, you will be esteemed by the world and rewarded by God , not because you have won the love and respect of the princes of the earth , however powerful, but rather for having loved, defended and cherished one such as I ... what you receive from others is a testimony to their virtue ; but all that you do for others is the sign and clear indication of your own.
Giordano Bruno— Dedication (On the Infinite Universe and Worlds (1584))
When we consider the being and substance of that universe in which we are immutably set, we shall discover that neither we ourselves nor any substance doth suffer death . for nothing is in fact diminished in its substance, but all things, wandering through infinite space, undergo change of aspect.
Giordano Bruno— Introductory Epistle
I cleave the heavens and soar to the infinite. And while I rise from my own globe to others And penetrate ever further through the eternal field, That which others saw from afar, I leave far behind me.
Giordano Bruno— Variant translation: While I venture out beyond this tiny globe
Into reaches past the bounds of starry night
I leave behind what others strain to see afar.
I pray you, magnificent Sir, do not trouble yourself to return to us, but await our coming to you.
Giordano Bruno— Third Dialogue
Divinity reveals herself in all things... everything has Divinity latent within itself. For she enfolds and imparts herself even unto the smallest beings, and from the smallest beings, according to their capacity. Without her presence nothing would have being, because she is the essence of the existence of the first unto the last being.
Giordano Bruno— As translated by Arthur Imerti (1964)
Those wise men knew God to be in things, and Divinity to be latent in Nature, working and glowing differently in different subjects and succeeding through diverse physical forms, in certain arrangements, in making them participants in her, I say, in her being, in her life and intellect.
Giordano Bruno— As translated by Arthur Imerti (1964)
If he is not Nature herself, he is certainly the nature of Nature, and is the soul of the Soul of the world, if he is not the soul herself.
Giordano Bruno— As translated by Arthur Imerti (1964)
Of the eternal incorporeal substance nothing is changed, is formed or deformed, but there always remains only that thing which cannot be a subject of dissolution, since it is not possible that it be a subject of composition, and therefore, either of itself or by accident, it cannot be said to die .
Giordano Bruno— As translated by Arthur Imerti (1964)
The infinity of All ever bringing forth anew, and even as infinite space is around us, so is infinite potentiality, capacity, reception, malleability, matter.
Giordano Bruno— I 1 as translated in Giordano Bruno : His Life and Thought with annotated translation of his work On the Infinite Universe and Worlds (1950) by Dorothea Waley Singer
The wise soul feareth not death ; rather she sometimes striveth for death, she goeth beyond to meet her. Yet eternity maintaineth her substance throughout time , immensity throughout space , universal form throughout motion.
Giordano Bruno— I 1 (De immenso (1591))
The one infinite is perfect , in simplicity , of itself, absolutely, nor can aught be greater or better, This is the one Whole, God , universal Nature , occupying all space, of whom naught but infinity can give the perfect image or semblance.
Giordano Bruno— II 12 as translated by Dorothea Waley Singer (1950)
The single spirit doth simultaneously temper the whole together; this is the single soul of all things; all are filled with God .
Giordano Bruno— IV 9; as translated by Dorothea Waley Singer (1950)
All things are in all.
Giordano Bruno— V 9; as translated by Dorothea Waley Singer (1950)
For nature is not merely present , but is implanted within things, distant from none... And while the outer face of things changeth so greatly, there flourisheth the origin of being more intimately within all things than they themselves. The fount of all kinds, Mind , God , Being, One, Truth , Destiny , Reason , Order .
Giordano Bruno— VIII 10 as translated by Dorothea Waley Singer (1950)
Our philosophy … reduceth to a single origin and relateth to a single end , and maketh contraries to coincide so that there is one primal foundation both of origin and of end. From this coincidence of contraries, we deduce that ultimately it is divinely true that contraries are within contraries; wherefore it is not difficult to compass the knowledge that each thing is within every other.
Giordano Bruno— As translated by Dorothea Waley Singer (1950)
