Mirror of the Intellect Quotes

“Beauty always represents an inward and inexhaustible equilibrium of forces; and this overwhelms our soul, since it can neither be calculated nor mechanically produced. A sense of beauty can therefore permit us the direct experience of relationships before we can perceive them, in a differentiated manner, with our discursive reason; in this, incidentally, there is a defence for our own physical and psychic well-being, something that we cannot neglect with impunity.”
― Titus Burckhardt, Mirror of the Intellect: Essays on the Traditional Science and Sacred Art

“The heliocentric system itself admits of an obvious symbolism, since it identifies the centre of the world with the source of light. Its rediscovery by Copernicus (For it is not a case of an unprecedented discovery. Copernicus himself refers to Nicetas of Syracuse as also to certain quotations in Plutarch) however, produced no new spiritual vision of the world; rather it was comparable to the popularization of an esoteric truth. The heliocentric system had no common measure with the subjective experiences of people; in it man had no organic place. Instead of helping the human mind to go beyond itself and to consider things in terms of the immensity of the cosmos, it only encouraged a materialistic Prometheanism which, far from being superhuman, ended by becoming inhuman.”
― Titus Burckhardt, Mirror of the Intellect: Essays on the Traditional Science and Sacred Art

“To be precise: there is no spiritual path outside the following traditions or religions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Taoism; but Hinduism is closed for those who have not been born into a Hindu caste, and Taoism is inaccessible.”
― Titus Burckhardt, Mirror of the Intellect: Essays on the Traditional Science and Sacred Art

“Moreover, do the experiments which are supposed to prove the constant character of the speed oflight really get beyond the earthly sphere, and do they not imply both space and time as usually imagined by us? Thus '300,000 km per second' is stated to be the speed of light, and it is held that here is a value which, if it be not necessarily everywhere expressed in this manner, does nonetheless remain constant throughout the physical universe. The astronomer who counts, by referring to the lines of the spectrum, the light-years separating us from the nebula of Andromeda, supposes without more ado that the universe is every-where 'woven' in the same manner. Now, what would happen if the constant character of the speed of light ever came to be doubted and there is every likelihood that it will be sooner or later so that the only fixed pivot of Einstein's theory would fall down? The whole modern conception of the universe would immediately dissolve like a mirage.”
― Titus Burckhardt, Mirror of the Intellect: Essays on the Traditional Science and Sacred Art

“On the other hand, the elimination of the qualitative aspects in favour of a tighter and tighter mathematical definition of atomic structure must necessarily reach a limit, beyond which precision gives way to the indeterminate. This is exactly what is happening with modern atomist science, in which mathematical reflection is being more and more replaced by statistics and calculations of probability, and in which the very laws of causality seem to be facing bankruptcy.

If the 'forms' of things are 'lights', as Boethius said, the reduction of the qualitative to the quantitative can be compared to the action of a man who puts out all the lights the better to scrutinize the nature of darkness. Modern science can never reach that matter that is at the basis of this world. But between the qualitiatively differentiated world and undifferentiated matter lies something like an intermediate zoneand this is chaos. The sinister dangers of atomic fission are but one signpost indicating the frontier of chaos and dissolution.”
― Titus Burckhardt, Mirror of the Intellect: Essays on the Traditional Science and Sacred Art

“Lorsque la demeure islamique se remplit d’images et d’objets distrayants, et que l’on marche avec des souliers sur les tapis et les nattes, qui normalement sont réservés à la prière, l’unité de la vie islamique est rompue, et il en va de même quand les vêtements que l’on porte dans la vie courante ne sont plus adaptés aux rites de la shariah.
A ce propos, il faut remarquer que l’art islamique ayant pour fonction essentielle de créer un cadre pour l’homme qui prie, le vêtement y occupe un rang qui n’est pas négligeable, comme le rappelle ce verset : « O fils d’Adam, revêtez vos parures (zeynatakum) en vous approchant d’une mosquée » (Coran, VII, 31). Le costume masculin des peuples de l’Islam comprend une multitude de formes, mais il exprime toujours le double rôle que cette tradition impose à l’homme : celui de représentant et de serviteur de Dieu. De ce fait, il est à la fois digne et sobre, nous dirions même majestueux et pauvre en même temps. Il recouvre l’animalité de l’homme, rehausse ses traits, tempère ses mouvements, et facilite les différentes postures de la prière. Le vêtement européen moderne, au contraire, ne fait que souligner le rang social de l’individu, tout en niant la dignité primordiale de l’homme, celle qui lui fut octroyée par Dieu.
"Valeurs pérennes de l’art islamique”
― Titus Burckhardt, Mirror of the Intellect: Essays on the Traditional Science and Sacred Art

“Selon toutes les prophéties, le dépôt sacré de la Tradition intégrale subsistera jusqu’à la fin du cycle ; cela signifie qu’il y aura toujours quelque part une porte ouverte. Pour les hommes capables de dépasser le plan des écorces et animés d’une volonté singulière, ni la décadence du monde environnant, ni l’appartenance à tel peuple ou tel milieu, ne constituent des obstacles absolus.”
― Titus Burckhardt, Mirror of the Intellect: Essays on the Traditional Science and Sacred Art