“...what is most to be noticed in all this is the generation of the animal spirits, which are like a very subtle wind, or rather like a very pure and lively flame....”
—René Descartes, Discourse on Method, Discourse Number Five, Penguin Books, 1968, page 72
“Many argue in this way. If all things follow from a necessity of the absolutely perfect nature of God, why are there so many imperfections in nature? Such, for instance, as things corrupt to the point of putridity, loathsome deformity, confusion, evil, sin, etc. But these reasoners are, as I have said, easily confuted, for the perfection of things is to be reasoned only from their own nature and power; things are not more or less perfect, according as they are serviceable or repugnant to mankind.”
—Baruch Spinoza, The Ethics, Citadel Press, 1957, page 80
“Materialism has worked out the principle of death. When one looks upon this as a Mysterium, it is nothing more than a repetition of the Mystery of Golgotha. At this point (i.e., the sacrifice of Christ), man is first incarnated. He lands on his feet on the earth and stands there firmly. Then, one can say: through materialism, man first became an earth-man. Before this, he swung a little over it. He came down slowly and he stood strongly in the middle of matter: then he had to get out of the conformity of matter. But nothing, such as there was in olden times to help him, either by spiritual forces, or by seers or mediums, or from high priests, or from druids, none of that will (now) help him; he has to do it for himself. Now man walks for himself.”
—Joseph Beuys, Joseph Beuys: Life and Work, Götz Adriani, Winfried Konnerts, and Karin Thomas, Barron's New York, page 274