Goethe and Einstein

In the last few days two quotes (see below) from men of what I would call 'more-than-science' have floated across my horizon. It's striking to me that science in it's fullest deepest sense is way beyond an objective external verifiable truth. It is a search for meaning, knowing, sensing, feeling and experiencing of what it is to be living a life in this wonderous universe.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

 “Man knows himself only to the extent that he knows the world; he becomes aware of himself only within the world, and aware of the world only within himself.  Every object, well contemplated, opens up a new organ within us.”

 Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

 

 “A human being is a part of the whole, called by us ‘Universe’, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest -a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness-. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation, and a foundation for inner security.”