“When thought races ahead of Being, a civilization is racing towards destruction.” What is God, 19
The root of materialism is a poverty of ideas about the inner and outer world. Less and less does our contemporary culture have, or even seek, commerce with great ideas, and it is that lack that is weakening the human spirit. This is the essence of materialism. Materialism is a disease of the mind starved for ideas.The American Soul, 6
It is customary to think that a sense of security and confidence comes from finding an answer, rather than a question. But the sense of security initially brought by “answers” almost always proves to be illusory. Taken in our usual state, answers soon close the mind and in doing so strengthen egoism, breeding conflict and yet more difficulties in our individual and collective lives. Human history, with its endless barbarism, could even be seen as the history of answers and their bloody progeny. And in a way, it is the same also in one’s own personal life. Collectively and individually, we do not suffer (or commit) evil because of our questions, but because of our answers. An Unknown World, 52
Almost every trick, every illusion great and small, depends on the passivity, the weakness, of human attention. A Sense of the Cosmos, 144
Is failure of attention the original sin? A Sense of the Cosmos, 156