When we consider the being and substance of that universe in which we are immutably set, we shall discover that neither we ourselves nor any substanc… - Giordano Bruno

O intelecto universal ( a causa eficiente) é (...) o todo que preenche todas as coisas, o que ilumina o universo e leva a natureza a produzir suas várias espécies de acordo. É para a produção das coisas naturais o que nosso intelecto é para a representação das coisas. Os pitagóricos o chamam de ''movedor'' e ''agitador do universo'' (...) os plantonistas o chamam ''o artífice do mundo'' (...) os hermeticistas dizem que é o ''mais fecundo em sementes'' ou ainda, que ele é ''o semeador de sementes'' (...) Orfeu o chama de ''o olho do mundo'' (...) Empédocles o chama de o ''diferenciador'' (...) Plotinus diz que ele é o ''pai e progenitor (...) quanto a nós, nós o chamamos o ''artífice interno'', porque dá forma a matéria, formando-a dentro como uma semente ou como uma raiz lançando-se a frente, desdobrando o tronco, de dentro do tronco impelindo para fora os galhos, dos galhos os ramos derivados, desfraldando brotos de dentro deles. (...) Há três tipos de intelecto: o divino, que é tudo, o mundano, do qual falamos, que (re)produz tudo, e o outro, singular, que se torna tudo, porque é necessário um meio termo entre dois extremos, e esta é a verdadeira causa eficiente, não apenas extrínseca, mas intrínseca, de todas as formas naturais.

Filoteo: Because the First Principle is the most fundamental, it follows that if one attribute were finite, then all attributes would likewise be finite; or else, if by one intrinsic rationale He is finite, and by another infinite, then necessarily we must consider him as composite. If therefore, he is the operator of the universe, then He is surely an infinite operator; in the sense that all is dependent on Him. Furthermore, since our imagination is able to move toward infinity, imagining always greater size and yet still greater, and number beyond number, following a certain succession, and as they say, power, so too we must also understand, that God actually conceives infinite dimension and infinite number. And from that understanding follows the possibility with the convenience and opportunity such as may be: that should the active power be infinite, then by necessary consequence, the subject power takes part in the infinite: because, as we have demonstrated elsewhere, what can be done must be done, the ability to measure implies the measurable thing, and the measurer implies the measured. Thus, as there really are bodies with finite dimension, the Prime Intellect understands bodies and dimension. If He has understanding of this, He understands infinity no less, and if He understands the infinite, and such bodies, then necessarily these are intelligible species, and are products of that intellect, for what is divine is most real, and as such what is that real must exist more surely than what we can actually see before our eyes.

XIV. Of all men they alone are at leisure who take time for philosophy, they alone really live; for they are not content to be good guardians of their own lifetime only. They annex ever age to their own; all the years that have gone ore them are an addition to their store. Unless we are most ungrateful, all those men, glorious fashioners of holy thoughts, were born for us; for us they have prepared a way of life. By other men's labours we are led to the sight of things most beautiful that have been wrested from darkness and brought into light; from no age are we shut out, we have access to all ages, and if it is our wish, by greatness of mind, to pass beyond the narrow limits of human weakness, there is a great stretch of time through which we may roam. We may argue with Socrates, we may doubt32 with Carneades, find peace with Epicurus, overcome human nature with the Stoics, exceed it with the Cynics. Since Nature allows us to enter into fellowship with every age, why should we not turn from this paltry and fleeting span of time and surrender ourselves with all our soul to the past, which is boundless, which is eternal, which we share with our betters?