quotations about order
In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order.
CARL JUNG
"Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious"
Order is the primary regulation of the celestial regions.
JOHN G. SAXE
attributed, Day's Collacon
Not chaos-like together crush'd and bruis'd,
But, as the world, harmoniously confused:
Where order in variety we see,
And where tho' all things differ, all agree.
ALEXANDER POPE
Windsor Forest
He who has no taste for order will be often wrong in his judgment, and seldom considerate or conscientious in his actions.
LAVATER
attributed, Day's Collacon
The man who believes that the secrets of the world are forever hidden lives in mystery and fear. Superstition will drag him down. The rain will erode the deeds of his life. But that man who sets himself the task of singling out the thread of order from the tapestry will by the decision alone have taken charge of the world and it is only by such taking charge that he will effect a way to dictate the terms of his own fate.
CORMAC MCCARTHY
Blood Meridian
The friend of order has made half his way to virtue.
JOHANN CASPAR LAVATER
Aphorisms on Man
Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit.
HENRY ADAMS
The Education of Henry Adams
Order and simplification are the first steps toward the mastery of a subject -- the actual enemy is the unknown.
THOMAS MANN
The Magic Mountain
Among the several cloudy appellatives which have been commonly employed as cloaks for misgovernment, there is none more conspicuous in this atmosphere of illusion than the word Order.
JEREMY BENTHAM
The Book of Fallacies: from Unfinished Papers of Jeremy Bentham
In times of widespread chaos and confusion, it has been the duty of more advanced human beings--artists, scientists, clowns and philosophers--to create order. In times such as ours, however, when there is too much order, too much management, too much programming and control, it becomes the duty of superior men and women to fling their favorite monkey wrenches into the machinery.
TOM ROBBINS
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.
FRANK HERBERT
Dune
Oh, order! Material order, intellectual order, moral order! What a comfort and strength, and what an economy! To know where we are going and what we want; that is order. To keep one's word, to do the right thing, and at the right time: more order. To have everything under one's hand, to put one's whole army through its manoeuvres, to work with all one's resources: still order. To discipline one's habits and efforts and wishes, to organize one's life and distribute one's time, to measure one's duties and assert one's rights, to put one's capital and resources, one's talents and opportunities to profit: again and always order. Order is light, peace, inner freedom, self-determination: it is power. To conceive order, to return to order, to realize order in oneself, around oneself, by means of oneself, this is aesthetic and moral beauty, it is well-being, it is what ought to be.
HENRI FREDERIC AMIEL
journal entry, January 27, 1860
Disorder is simply the order we are not looking for.
HENRI BERGSON
The Creative Mind: An Introduction to Metaphysics
Disorder increases with time because we measure time in the direction in which disorder increases.
STEPHEN HAWKING
A Brief History of Time
Any order is a balancing act of extreme precariousness.
WALTER BENJAMIN
Illuminations: Essays and Reflections
Space and light and order. Those are the things that men need just as much as they need bread or a place to sleep.
LE CORBUSIER
attributed in his obituary, New York Times, 1965
The order of the Eternal manifests itself in the sun which rises and the heavens which fall.
JENS BAGGESEN
attributed, Day's Collacon
God in loving Himself essentially loves order, because He is Order.
CYRUS THE GREAT
attributed, Day's Collacon
Chaos is a name for any order that produces confusion in our minds.
GEORGE SANTAYANA
Dominations and Powers
Order is what exists before you start arranging things.
MARTY RUBIN
attributed, The Secrets of Hidden Knowledge