On Images (Unsourced)

"A theory is a purely mental image of how something should be." (Adrian Bejan)

"Every addition or improvement to our knowledge, of whatsoever kind, comes from an exercise of our powers of perception. In necessary inference my observation is directed to a creation of my own imagination, a sort of diagram or image in which are portrayed the facts given in the premises; and the observation consists in recognizing relations between the parts of this diagram which were not noticed in constructing it." (Charles S Peirce)

"Intuition is perception via the unconscious that brings forth ideas, images, new possibilities and ways out of blocked situations." (Carl G Jung)

"Just as the stone thrown into the water becomes the centre and cause of various circles, [so] the sound made in the air spreads out in circles and fills the surrounding parts with an infinite number of images of itself." (Leonardo da Vinci)

"Symbolism transforms the phenomenon into the idea, and the idea into an image in such a fashion that in the image the idea remains infinitely active and incommensurable, and if all languages were used to express it, it would still remain inexpressible." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "Maxims and Reflections")

"The man of science will acts as if this world were an absolute whole controlled by laws independent of his own thoughts or act; but whenever he discovers a law of striking simplicity or one of sweeping universality or one which points to a perfect harmony in the cosmos, he will be wise to wonder what role his mind has played in the discovery, and whether the beautiful image he sees in the pool of eternity reveals the nature of this eternity, or is but a reflection of his own mind." (Tobias Dantzig)

"The World-honored One has taught [that meditation has] four kinds of content. The first is that content accompanied by images for reflection, the second is that content not accompanied by images for reflection, the third is that content which extends to the limit of the phenomenal, and the fourth is that content which fulfills duty." (Samdhinirmocana Sutra [Xuanzang's translation])

"Time is to eternity as an image is to its exemplar, and those things which are temporal bear a resemblance to those things which are eternal." (Nicholas of Cusa)

"To most outsiders, modern mathematics is unknown territory. Its borders are protected by dense thickets of technical terms; its landscapes are a mass of indecipherable equations and incomprehensible concepts. Few realize that the world of modern mathematics is rich with vivid images and provocative ideas." (Ivars Peterson)

"We call it 'explanation', but it is 'description' which distinguishes us from earlier stages of knowledge and science. We describe better - we explain just as little who came before us [...] We operate with nothing but things which do not exist, with lines, planes, bodies, atoms, divisible time, divisible space - how should explanation even be possible when we first make everything into an image, into our image!" (Friedrich W Nietzsche)

"You know how the divine Simplicity enfolds all things. Mind is the image of this enfolding Simplicity. If, then, you called this divine Simplicity infinite Mind, it will be the exemplar of our mind. If you called the divine mind the totality of the truth of things, you will call our mind the totality of the assimilation of things, so that it may be a totality of ideas. In the divine Mind conception is the production of things; in our mind conception is the knowledge of things. If the divine Mind is absolute Being, then its conception is the creation of beings; and conception in the human mind is the assimilation of beings." (Nicholas of Cusa)