If it happens that in seeing God one understands what is seen, that means it is not God himself who is seen but one of those knowable things that owe their being to him. For in himself he transcends all intelligence and all essence. He exists in a superessential mode and is known beyond all understanding only in so far as he is utterly unknown and does not exist at all. And it is that perfect unknowing, taken in the best sense of the word, the constitutes the true knowing of him who transcends all knowing.
DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE Mystical Theology, II
The infinite is without doubt something of God, but not God himself, who is infinitely beyond even that.
MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR Ambigua
The mystery that is beyond God himself,
the Ineffable,
that gives its name to everything,
is complete affirmation, complete negation,
beyond all affirmation and all negation.
DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE Divine Names, II,4
