Form

Works to read

• Summa Theologica by Thomas Aquinas, 1265-1274
• A History of Philosophy, Vol. XI: Logical Positivism and Existentialism by Frederick Copleston, 1956
• Metaphysics by Aristotle, c. 350-322 BC · Great Books
• Epitome of Copernican Astronomy by Johannes Kepler, 1617-1621 · Great Books
• The Works of William Harvey by William Harvey, 1628-1651 · Great Books
• Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant, 1781 (revised 1787) · Great Books
• Experimental Researches in Electricity, Volume 1 by Michael Faraday, 1839 · Great Books
• The Republic and The Laws by Marcus Tullius Cicero, c. 54-51 BC
• Natural History: A Selection by Pliny the Elder, c. 77 CE
• On the Incarnation of the Word by Athanasius of Alexandria, c. 318–337
• An Investigation of the Laws of Thought by George Boole, 1854
• The Birth of Tragedy by Friedrich Nietzsche, 1872

Passages

From the texts

• But only the parts of the form are parts of the formula, and the formula is of the universal; for 'being a circle' is the same as the circle, and 'being a soul' the same as the soul.

  — Aristotle, Metaphysics

Verified quotations

• There appears to be a sort of war of Giants and Gods going on amongst them; they are fighting with one another about the nature of essence

  — Plato, Sophist

• But man, proud man, Dressed in a little brief authority, Most ignorant of what he’s most assured, His glassy essence, like an angry ape Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven As makes the angels weep

  — William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure

• psycho-analysis cannot accept the view that consciousness is the essence of mental life, but is obliged to regard consciousness as one property of mental life, which may co-exist along with its other properties or may be absent

  — Sigmund Freud, The Ego and the Id

• the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls, ready to remind us, waiting and hoping for their moment, amid the ruins of all the rest; and bear unfaltering, in the tiny and almost impalpable drop of their essence, the vast structure of recollection.

  — Marcel Proust, Swann's Way

• This is of the essence of censorship.

  — Supreme Court of the United States, Near v. Minnesota

• Plainly the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy

  — Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address

Passages are verified quotations from the library that use one of these words: form, forms, essence. Sentences under “From the texts” are copied word for word from the full texts in this library. Read each in its context on the work's page.