Nicolas Malebranche Quotes
Nicolas Malebranche was a French Oratorian priest and one of the most original Cartesian philosophers of the seventeenth century. His Search After Truth combined Descartes' rationalism with Augustinian theology in a system whose two central doctrines are occasionalism, the view that God is the only true cause, and the vision in God, the claim that we perceive the essences of things by seeing them in the divine intellect. The quotes below are attributed to Nicolas Malebranche, organized by topic.
Browse Nicolas Malebranche by topic
Nicolas Malebranche on God
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Attributed to Nicolas Malebranche:
“We see all things in God.”
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Attributed to Nicolas Malebranche:
“There is only one true cause, because there is only one true God.”
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“I am unable, when I turn to myself, to recognize any of my faculties or my capacities. The inner sensation which I have of myself informs me that I am, that I think, that I will, that I have sensory awareness, that I suffer, and so on; but it provides me with no knowledge whatever of what I am — of the nature of my thought, my sensations, my passions, or my pain — or the mutual relations that obtain between all these things … I have no idea whatever of my soul.”
Dialogues on Metaphysics (1688) Dialogue III
Nicolas Malebranche on Happiness
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Attributed to Nicolas Malebranche:
“Pleasure is always good, but it is not always good to enjoy it.”
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“It is not within our power not to desire to be happy.”
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Nicolas Malebranche on Knowledge
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“I am not my own light unto myself.”
Dialogues on Metaphysics (1688) Dialogue III | Variant translation: I am not a light unto myself . -
“Dialogues on Metaphysics (1688) Dialogue III”
I am not my own light unto myself. -
“Variant translation: I am not a light unto myself .”
I am not my own light unto myself. -
“Dialogues on Metaphysics (1688) Dialogue III”
I am unable, when I turn to myself, to recognize any of my faculties or my capacities. The inner sensation which I have of myself informs me that I am, that I think, that I will, that I have sensory awareness, that I suffer, and so on; but it provides me with no knowledge whatever of what I am — of the nature of my thought, my sensations, my passions, or my pain — or the mutual relations that obta
Nicolas Malebranche on Mind
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Attributed to Nicolas Malebranche:
“Attention is the natural prayer of the soul.”
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Attributed to Nicolas Malebranche:
“The mind is not at the disposal of the body, but the body at the disposal of the mind.”
Nicolas Malebranche on Truth
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“On the Search of the Truth .”
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