Edward Hirsch Quotes

An effective human being is a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

The whole is more than the sum of its parts.

A kind of synthesis, but with some elements that perhaps you wouldn't have expected in advance. I always like that when that happens, when something comes that is more than the sum of the parts.

I would say the flip side to my fascination with systems is a fascination with components. So many of my books are dialogues between little and big.

Each part in itself constitutes the whole to which it belongs.

Modern physics has taught us that the nature of any system cannot be discovered by dividing it into its component parts and studying each part by itself... We must keep our attention fixed on the whole and on the interconnection between the parts. The same is true of our intellectual life. It is impossible to make a clear cut between science, religion, and art. The whole is never equal simply to the sum of its various parts.

We often think that when we have completed our study of one we know all about two, because 'two' is 'one and one.' We forget that we still have to make a study of 'and.'

Man does not weave this web of life. He is merely a strand of it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.

What's my philosophy? In a word, integral.

The wise see knowledge and action as one.

Wizarding is technical to me. When you get something that adds up to more than the sum of its parts, that feeling is magic to me. That's a kind of alchemy.

Nature does not compartmentalise. Its instinct is integrative and holistic.

Symphony is the ability to see the big picture, connect the dots, combine disparate things into something new. Visual artists in particular are good at seeing how the pieces come together. I experienced this myself by trying to learn to draw.

Still follow sense, of ev'ry art the soul, Parts answering parts shall slide into a whole.

There is a fundamental error in separating the parts from the whole, the mistake of atomizing what should not be atomized. Unity and complementarity constitute reality.

Integration is a basic law of life; when we resist it, disintegration is the natural result, both inside and outside of us. Thus we come to the concept of harmony through integration.

It is impossible to make a clear cut between science, religion, and art. The whole is never equal simply to the sum of its various parts.

We are internally related to everything, not [just] externally related. Consciousness is an internal relationship to the whole, we take in the whole, and we act toward the whole. Whatever we have taken in determines basically what we are. Wholeness is a kind of attitude or approach to the whole of life. If we can have a coherent approach to reality then reality will respond coherently to us.

Science is not enough, religion is not enough, art is not enough, politics and economics are not enough, nor is love, nor is duty, nor is action however disinterested, nor, however sublime, is contemplation. Nothing short of everything, will really do.

So when we spend all of our time trying to separate that which is already joined, it's a waste of time.

A miracle is when the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. A miracle is when one plus one equals a thousand.

If I were to imagine myself as an idler wheel inside some big mix of gears, then I would be connected to everything. It's not like there's just me and then nothing.

I love collaboration of all kinds, and I love the way that collaboration pulls me into directions I wouldn't go in if I was working on my own.

We've got unmatched talent, innovation, entrepreneurial spirit, so when we work together, we can all benefit.

It is better to be part of a great whole than to be the whole of a small part.