Maimonides: Not for Human's Sake

Quotables: Wild Judaism

​Guide of the Perplexed, Part III, chapter 13 

It should not be believed that all the beings exist for the sake of the existence of humanity. On the contrary, all the other beings too have been intended for their own sakes, and not for the sake of something else.… this is what one ought to believe. For when people know their own soul, make no mistakes regarding it, and understand every being according to what it is, they become calm and their thoughts are not troubled by seeking…any final end for what has no final end except its own existence, which depends on the divine will--if you prefer you can also say: on the divine wisdom. 

​Moses Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed, translated by 
Shlomo Pines, pps 184 and 187. Adapted. 

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