"[Intuitive] Understanding is consequent upon deliberation, and firmly embraces the better part. For [intuitive] understanding concerns itself with divine truths, and the relish, love, and observance of the latter constitutes true wisdom. Rather than being the [mere] product of nature, these successive steps are the result of grace. The latter, according to its own free determination, derives the various rivulets of the sciences and wisdom from the fountainhead of sense perception. Grace reveals hidden divine truths by means of those things which have been made, and by that unity which belongs to love, communicates what it has made manifest, thus uniting man to God." (, "Metalogicon", 1159)
*Orators and Philosophers treat Nature after a very different manner […] with all her graces and ornaments, and if there be anything which is not capable of that, they dissemble it, or pass it over slightly. But Philosophers view Nature with a more impartial eye, and without favor or prejudice give a just and free account [of] how they find all the parts of the Universe, some more, some less perfect." (Thomas Burnet,"The Sacred Theory of the Earth" 2nd ed.,1691)
"In order to depict nature in its exalted sublimity, we st not dwell exclusively on its external manifestations, but we must trace its image, reflected in the mind of man, at one time filling the dreamy land of physical myths with forms of grace and beauty, and at another developing the noble germ of artistic creations." (Alexander von Humboldt, "Cosmos: A Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe" Vol. 2, 1869)
"[...] science gives Man from time to time a greatly increased mastery over Nature; science, with its analytical triumphs, ever tends to diminish, in the shallowminded, the saving grace of wonder; and science is ever dispelling the darkness that oppresses the mind." (J Arthur Thomson, "The System of Animate Nature" Vol 1, 1920)
"What the world needs is a fusion of the sciences and the humanities. The humanities express the symbolic, poetic, and prophetic qualities of the human spirit. Without them we would not be conscious of our history; we would lose our aspirations and the grace of expression that move men’s hearts. The sciences express the creative urge in man to construct a universe which is comprehensible in terms of the human intellect. Without them, mankind would find itself bewildered in a world of natural forces beyond comprehension, victims of ignorance, superstition and fear." (Isidor I Rabi, [address] 1954)
"There was a moment when I knew how nature worked. It had elegance and beauty. The goddam thing was gleaming." (Paul K Feyerabend, 1967)
"Ever bigger machines, entailing ever bigger concentrations of economic power and exerting ever greater violence against the environment, do not represent progress: they are a denial of wisdom. Wisdom demands a new orientation of science and technology towards the organic, the gentle, the non-violent, the elegant and beautiful." (Ernst F Schumacher,"Small Is Beautiful", 1973)
"While Occam’s razor is a useful tool in the physical sciences, it can be a very dangerous implement in biology. It is thus very rash to use simplicity and elegance as a guide in biological research." (Francis H C Crick, "What Mad Pursuit: A Personal View of Scientific Discovery", 1988)
"We move from part to whole and back again, and in that dance of comprehension, in that amazing circle of understanding, we come alive to meaning, to value, and to vision: the very circle of understanding guides our way, weaving together the pieces, healing the fractures, mending the torn and tortured fragments, lighting the way ahead - this extraordinary movement from part to whole and back again, with healing the hallmark of each and every step, and grace the tender reward." (Ken Wilber, "The Eye of Spirit: An Integral Vision for a World Gone Slightly Mad", 1997)
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